Security Resilience

CVE-2023-37328

Memory Safety in Gstreamer ≤ 1.20.7

Published
03 May 2024
Modified
17 March 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.021 81th percentile
Risk Priority 72 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-37328 is a high-severity Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-122) vulnerability in Gstreamer Gstreamer. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 19% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

GStreamer contains a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in its PGS subtitle file parser, tracked as CVE-2023-37328. The flaw stems from insufficient validation of the length of attacker-supplied data before it is copied into a heap buffer, allowing memory corruption during file processing. The issue affects installations of GStreamer that parse PGS subtitles and was originally reported as ZDI-CAN-20994.

Remote attackers can exploit the vulnerability by supplying a malicious PGS file to any application or service that uses the affected GStreamer library. Successful exploitation grants arbitrary code execution in the context of the process handling the subtitle data, with no authentication required and only user interaction needed to trigger the file parse.

The GStreamer project has published security advisory SA-2023-0003 detailing the issue and corresponding fixes, while the Zero Day Initiative has released ZDI-23-901 with additional technical analysis. Downstream distributions such as Fedora have issued coordinated package updates to address the vulnerability. The associated EPSS score has remained flat at 0.0771 with no material increase since disclosure.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

GStreamer PGS File Parsing Heap-based Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of GStreamer. Interaction with this library is required to exploit this vulnerability but attack vectors may vary…

more

depending on the implementation. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of PGS subtitle files. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of the length of user-supplied data prior to copying it to a heap-based buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current process. . Was ZDI-CAN-20994.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control
Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.
T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…
T1006 Direct Volume Access Stealth
Adversaries may directly access a volume to bypass file access controls and file system monitoring.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-18296Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-18298Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-3082Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-2920Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-3085Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2023-37329Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2023-44429Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2025-47806Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2023-40476Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-18297Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer

Affected Assets

gstreamer
gstreamer
≤ 1.20.7 · 1.22.0 — 1.22.4

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

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Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

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Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

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Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing and memory-error detectors) can discover heap overflows after they have been coded.

Input validation enforces bounds checking on data written to heap buffers, directly stopping the overflow condition from being introduced.

Security engineering principles require use of memory-safe constructs and bounds-checked allocation routines that avoid introducing heap overflows.

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the ability of a heap overflow to execute attacker-controlled code or corrupt adjacent structures.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

ID.RA-01 partial match
blocks

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover heap-overflow flaws but does not prevent their introduction in code.

PR.PS-02 partial match
blocks

Timely patching removes known heap-overflow instances after they exist.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure-development practices directly require bounds checking and safe memory handling that prevent heap overflows.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

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References