Security Resilience

CVE-2023-37329

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 0.016 76th percentile
Risk Priority 71 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-2023-37329 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 24% 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 SRT subtitle file parser that can lead to remote code execution. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-37329 and originally ZDI-CAN-20968, stems from insufficient validation of user-supplied data lengths before copying into a heap buffer, affecting installations that process SRT files through the library. It carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 8.8 and is also associated with CWE-122 and CWE-787.

Remote attackers can trigger the issue by supplying a malicious SRT file to an affected GStreamer-based application, achieving arbitrary code execution in the context of the current process. Exploitation requires interaction with the library but can occur through varied attack vectors depending on how the application consumes subtitle data.

Official advisories from the GStreamer project and Zero Day Initiative, along with distribution notices such as those from Fedora, address the issue and point to updated packages that resolve the parsing flaw. The EPSS score has remained flat at 0.0630 with no material increase observed after disclosure.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

GStreamer SRT 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 SRT 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-20968.

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).
T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
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…
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-44429Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-3082Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-2920Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-3085Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-18296Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-18298Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2023-37328Same product: Gstreamer Gstreamer
CVE-2026-46520Shared CWE-122, CWE-787
CVE-2024-39518Shared CWE-122, CWE-787
CVE-2025-27177Shared CWE-122, CWE-787

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.

Requiring documented secure-development standards and tools can mandate bounds-checked coding practices that avoid the weakness.

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