CVE-2014-9640
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedoggenc/oggenc.c in vorbis-tools 1.4.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) via a crafted raw file.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceThe vulnerability is an out-of-bounds read in oggenc.c when processing crafted raw audio files in vorbis-tools 1.4.0. The encoder lacks proper bounds validation when parsing raw input, allowing a specially crafted file to trigger the read beyond allocated memory boundaries, resulting in denial of service.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 1.4.0= 13.1= 13.2CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify vorbis-tools is installedRun 'which oggenc' or 'dpkg -l | grep vorbis-tools' (Debian) / 'rpm -qa | grep vorbis-tools' (RPM) to confirm the oggenc encoder binary is present on the systemAffected if oggenc binary exists on the system and its version is 1.4.0
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Determine installed vorbis-tools versionRun 'oggenc -V' or check the package version via 'dpkg -s vorbis-tools' / 'rpm -qi vorbis-tools'Affected if The installed version is exactly 1.4.0
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Identify raw audio input processingReview any scripts, workflows, or automated processes that invoke oggenc with raw audio input (typically via stdin or raw file arguments without prior encoding)Affected if oggenc is being used to encode raw PCM/WAV audio files from any source
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Check for untrusted file processingAudit logs, batch scripts, or media processing pipelines that feed untrusted or user-supplied raw audio files to oggencAffected if Raw audio files from untrusted or external sources are processed by oggenc
A system is affected if vorbis-tools version 1.4.0 is installed AND oggenc is used to process raw audio files, allowing a specially crafted malformed raw audio file to trigger the out-of-bounds read.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade vorbis-tools to a version that patches this vulnerability, or implement input validation to reject malformed raw files before processing. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, restrict processing of raw audio files from untrusted sources.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-9640 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-9640 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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