Freeware Advanced Audio Decoder 2Application · Audiocoding

CVE-2017-9219

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-06-27
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges

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 · unedited
The mp4ff_read_stsc function in common/mp4ff/mp4atom.c in Freeware Advanced Audio Decoder 2 (FAAD2) 2.7 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory allocation error and application crash) via a crafted mp4 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 confidence

The vulnerability exists in the mp4ff_read_stsc function in FAAD2's MP4 parsing code (common/mp4ff/mp4atom.c). When parsing a crafted MP4 file, the function fails to properly handle certain atom structures, causing memory allocation to fail and triggering an application crash.

MitigationUpdate to a patched version of FAAD2 if available. Additionally, implement input validation on MP4 files before decoding to reject malformed files early in the processing pipeline.

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
Freeware Advanced Audio Decoder 2Application
Affected:= 2.7

CVSS 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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if FAAD2 is installed
    Search for FAAD2 libraries (libfaad.so, libfaad.a, faad2 DLL) or binaries (faad, faad2) on the system using package managers or file system searches
    Affected if FAAD2 libraries or binaries are present on the system
  2. Determine FAAD2 version
    Run 'faad -v' or check library version using 'ldd -l libfaad.so' or examine version information in the binary/package metadata
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 2.7 (the only affected version listed)
  3. Verify MP4 parsing component
    Check if the mp4ff library component (common/mp4ff/) or mp4atom.c derived objects exist in the system, or if applications link against libfaad for MP4 decoding
    Affected if Applications or services link against FAAD2 for MP4 file processing
  4. Check for MP4 file processing workflows
    Identify any applications, services, or automated pipelines that accept MP4 files as input and decode them using FAAD2
    Affected if Untrusted or external MP4 files are processed by FAAD2-based decoders

The system is affected if FAAD2 version 2.7 is installed and processes MP4 files through its mp4ff parsing code.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update to a patched version of FAAD2 if available. Additionally, implement input validation on MP4 files before decoding to reject malformed files early in the processing pipeline.

Fix this in Freeware Advanced Audio Decoder 2 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,080
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-9219 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-9219 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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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