CVE-2017-5839
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 · uneditedThe gst_riff_create_audio_caps function in gst-libs/gst/riff/riff-media.c in gst-plugins-base in GStreamer before 1.10.3 does not properly limit recursion, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (stack overflow and crash) via vectors involving nested WAVEFORMATEX.
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 · high confidenceThe gst_riff_create_audio_caps function in GStreamer's gst-libs/gst/riff/riff-media.c lacks proper recursion limits when processing nested WAVEFORMATEX structures, allowing deeply nested audio format data to trigger unbounded recursion and stack overflow, causing a 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<= 1.10.2CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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 GStreamer is installedRun 'gst-inspect-1.0 --version' or check your package manager for gstreamer packages (e.g., dpkg -l | grep gstreamer, rpm -qa | grep gstreamer)Affected if No GStreamer packages found means not affected by this CVE
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Determine installed GStreamer core versionRun 'gst-inspect-1.0 --version' to get the exact version number, or check the libgstreamer-1.0.so library version in /usr/lib/Affected if Version 1.10.2 or lower indicates the installed version is within the vulnerable range
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Check if riff-media library is presentLook for libgstriff-1.0.so in /usr/lib/ or run 'gst-inspect-1.0 riff-media' to confirm the riff-media element is availableAffected if The riff-media component exists and is loadable, meaning the vulnerable code path can be triggered
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Identify applications using GStreamer for audio processingReview running services or applications that process WAV, AVI, or other RIFF-based media files using GStreamer pipelinesAffected if Applications process untrusted RIFF/WAV audio data through GStreamer, enabling the vulnerable code path
You are affected if GStreamer version 1.10.2 or lower is installed AND your system processes untrusted RIFF/WAV audio format data through GStreamer's riff-media component.
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 GStreamer to version 1.10.3 or later to obtain the patch that adds proper recursion depth limits to the riff-media.c processing logic.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,464.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-5839 — 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-2017-5839 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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