A heap-use-after-free in the av_freep function in libavutil/mem.c of FFmpeg 4.2 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code.

The remote SUSE Linux SLES15 / SLES_SAP15 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the SUSE-SU-2021:2929-1 advisory.

    - CVE-2019-9721: Fixed a denial of service in the subtitle decoder in handle_open_brace from     libavcodec/htmlsubtitles.c (bsc#1129714).
    - CVE-2020-22046: Fixed a denial of service vulnerability due to a memory leak in the     avpriv_float_dsp_allocl function in libavutil/float_dsp.c (bsc#1186849).
    - CVE-2020-22048: Fixed a denial of service vulnerability due to a memory leak in the ff_frame_pool_get     function in framepool.c (bsc#1186859).
    - CVE-2020-22049: Fixed a denial of service vulnerability caused by a memory leak in the     wtvfile_open_sector function in wtvdec.c (bsc#1186861).
    - CVE-2020-22054: Fixed a denial of service vulnerability due to a memory leak in the av_dict_set function     in dict.c (bsc#1186863).
    - CVE-2020-13904: Fixed use-after-free via a crafted EXTINF duration in an m3u8 file (bsc#1172640).
    - CVE-2020-21041: Fixed buffer overflow vulnerability via apng_do_inverse_blend in libavcodec/pngenc.c     (bsc#1186406).
    - CVE-2019-17539: Fixed NULL pointer dereference in avcodec_open2 in libavcodec/utils.c (bsc# 1154065).
    - CVE-2020-22026: Fixed buffer overflow vulnerability in config_input() at libavfilter/af_tremolo.c     (bsc#1186583).
    - CVE-2020-22021: Fixed buffer overflow vulnerability in filter_edges function in libavfilter/vf_yadif.c     (bsc#1186586).
    - CVE-2020-22020: Fixed buffer overflow vulnerability in build_diff_map() in libavfilter/vf_fieldmatch.c     (bsc#1186587).
    - CVE-2020-22015: Fixed buffer overflow vulnerability in mov_write_video_tag() due to the out of bounds in     libavformat/movenc.c (bsc#1186596).
    - CVE-2020-22016: Fixed a heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability at libavcodec/get_bits.h when writing     .mov files (bsc#1186598).
    - CVE-2020-22017: Fixed a heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in ff_fill_rectangle() in     libavfilter/drawutils.c (bsc#1186600).
    - CVE-2020-22022: Fixed a heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in filter_frame at     libavfilter/vf_fieldorder.c (bsc#1186603).
    - CVE-2020-22023: Fixed a heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in filter_frame at     libavfilter/vf_bitplanenoise.c (bsc#1186604)
    - CVE-2020-22025: Fixed a heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in gaussian_blur at     libavfilter/vf_edgedetect.c (bsc#1186605).
    - CVE-2020-22031: Fixed a heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability at libavfilter/vf_w3fdif.c in     filter16_complex_low() (bsc#1186613).
    - CVE-2020-22032: Fixed a heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability at libavfilter/vf_edgedetect.c in     gaussian_blur() (bsc#1186614).
    - CVE-2020-22034: Fixed a heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability at libavfilter/vf_floodfill.c     (bsc#1186616).
    - CVE-2020-20451: Fixed denial of service issue due to resource management errors via fftools/cmdutils.c     (bsc#1186658).
    - CVE-2020-20448: Fixed divide by zero issue via libavcodec/ratecontrol.c (bsc#1186660).
    - CVE-2020-22038: Fixed denial of service vulnerability due to a memory leak in the     ff_v4l2_m2m_create_context function in v4l2_m2m.c (bsc#1186757).
    - CVE-2020-22039: Fixed denial of service vulnerability due to a memory leak in the inavi_add_ientry     function (bsc#1186758).
    - CVE-2020-22043: Fixed denial of service vulnerability due to a memory leak at the fifo_alloc_common     function in libavutil/fifo.c (bsc#1186762).
    - CVE-2020-22044: Fixed denial of service vulnerability due to a memory leak in the     url_open_dyn_buf_internal function in libavformat/aviobuf.c (bsc#1186763).
    - CVE-2020-22033,CVE-2020-22019: Fixed a heap-based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability at     libavfilter/vf_vmafmotion.c in convolution_y_8bit() and in convolution_y_10bit() in     libavfilter/vf_vmafmotion.c (bsc#1186615, bsc#1186597).
    - CVE-2020-21688: Fixed a heap-use-after-free in the av_freep function in libavutil/mem.c (bsc#1189348).
    - CVE-2020-21697: Fixed a heap-use-after-free in the mpeg_mux_write_packet function in     libavformat/mpegenc.c (bsc#1189350).
    - CVE-2021-38114: Fixed a not checked return value of the init_vlc function (bsc#1189142).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Unity Linux 20 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the UTSA-2025-936086 advisory.

    A heap-use-after-free in the av_freep function in libavutil/mem.c of FFmpeg 4.2 allows attackers to     execute arbitrary code.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Unity Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - A heap-use-after-free in the av_freep function in libavutil/mem.c of FFmpeg 4.2 allows attackers to     execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2020-21688)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 ESM host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-5167-1 advisory.

    It was discovered that FFmpeg did not properly verify certain input when processing video and audio files.
    An attacker could possibly use this to send specially crafted input to the application, force a division     by zero, and cause a denial of service (application crash). (CVE-2020-20445, CVE-2020-20446,     CVE-2020-20453, CVE-2020-20892)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg did not properly perform certain bit shift and memory operations. An     attacker could possibly use this issue to expose sensitive information. (CVE-2020-20902)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg did not properly perform memory management operations in various of its     functions. An attacker could possibly use this issue to send specially crafted input to the application     and cause a denial of service (application crash) or execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2020-21041,     CVE-2020-20451, CVE-2020-21688, CVE-2020-21697, CVE-2020-22020, CVE-2020-22021, CVE-2020-22022,     CVE-2020-22025, CVE-2020-22031, CVE-2020-22032, CVE-2020-22037, CVE-2020-22040, CVE-2020-22041,     CVE-2020-22042, CVE-2020-22044)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg did not properly perform memory management operations in various of its     functions. An attacker could possibly use this issue to send specially crafted input to the application     and cause a denial of service (application crash) or execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2020-22016,     CVE-2020-22046, CVE-2020-22049, CVE-2020-22054)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg did not properly perform memory management operations in various of its     functions. An attacker could possibly use this issue to send specially crafted input to the application     and cause a denial of service (application crash) or execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2020-35965)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg did not properly handle data assigned to the tty demuxer. An attacker could     possibly use this issue to send specially crafted input to the application and expose sensitive     information. (CVE-2021-3566)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg did not perform checks on function return values when encoding and     formatting input video and audio files. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of     service (application crash) or execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-38114, CVE-2021-38171)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg did not properly sanitize function returned data when calculating frame     duration values. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause an assertion failure and then cause a     denial of service (application crash). (CVE-2021-38291)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Ubuntu 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-5472-1 advisory.

    It was discovered that FFmpeg would attempt to divide by zero when using Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) or     AAC codecs. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. This issue only     affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 21.10. (CVE-2020-20445, CVE-2020-20446,     CVE-2020-20453)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled certain input. An attacker could possibly use this issue     to cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. (CVE-2020-20450)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled file conversion to APNG format. An attacker could     possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu     20.04 LTS. (CVE-2020-21041)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled remuxing RTP-hint tracks. A remote attacker could     possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu     20.04 LTS. (CVE-2020-21688)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled certain specially crafted AVI files. An attacker could     possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu     20.04 LTS. (CVE-2020-21697)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled writing MOV video tags. An attacker could possibly use     this issue to cause a denial of service, obtain sensitive information or execute arbitrary code. This     issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 21.10. (CVE-2020-22015)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled writing MOV files. An attacker could possibly use this     issue to cause a denial of service or other unspecified impact. This issue affected only Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
    (CVE-2020-22016)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled memory when using certain filters. An attacker could     possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service or other unspecified impact. This issue only affected     Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. (CVE-2020-22017, CVE-2020-22020, CVE-2020-22022, CVE-2020-22023,     CVE-2022-22025, CVE-2020-22026, CVE-2020-22028, CVE-2020-22031, CVE-2020-22032, CVE-2020-22034,     CVE-2020-22036, CVE-2020-22042)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled memory when using certain filters. An attacker could     possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service or other unspecified impact. This issue only affected     Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 21.10. (CVE-2020-22019, CVE-2020-22021, CVE-2020-22033)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled memory when using certain filters. An attacker could     possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service or other unspecified impact. This issue only affected     Ubuntu 21.10. (CVE-2020-22027, CVE-2020-22029, CVE-2020-22030, CVE-2020-22035)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled certain specially crafted JPEG files. An attacker could     possibly use this issue to obtain sensitive information. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu     20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 21.10. (CVE-2020-22037)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly performed calculations in EXR codec. An attacker could possibly     use this issue to cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04     LTS. (CVE-2020-35965)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg did not verify return values of functions init_vlc and init_get_bits. An     attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service or other unspecified impact. This     issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 21.10. (CVE-2021-38114, CVE-2021-38171)

    It was discovered that FFmpeg incorrectly handled certain specially crafted files. An attacker could     possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 21.10 and Ubuntu     22.04 LTS. (CVE-2022-1475)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Debian 11 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the dsa-4998 advisory.

    Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the FFmpeg multimedia framework, which could result in     denial of service or potentially the execution of arbitrary code if malformed files/streams are processed.
    For the stable distribution (bullseye), these problems have been fixed in version 7:4.3.3-0+deb11u1. We     recommend that you upgrade your ffmpeg packages. For the detailed security status of ffmpeg please refer     to its security tracker page at: https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/ffmpeg

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Debian security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote SUSE Linux SLED15 / SLES15 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the SUSE-SU-2021:2919-1 advisory.

    - CVE-2019-9721: Fix denial of service in the subtitle decoder in handle_open_brace from     libavcodec/htmlsubtitles.c (bsc#1129714).
    - CVE-2020-22046: Fix a denial of service vulnerability exists in FFmpeg 4.2 due to a memory leak in the     avpriv_float_dsp_allocl function in libavutil/float_dsp.c (bsc#1186849).
    - CVE-2020-22048: Fix a denial of service vulnerability exists in FFmpeg 4.2 due to a memory leak in the     ff_frame_pool_get function in framepool.c (bsc#1186859).
    - CVE-2020-22049: Fix a denial of service vulnerability exists in FFmpeg 4.2 due to a memory leak in the     wtvfile_open_sector function in wtvdec.c (bsc#1186861).
    - CVE-2020-22054: Fix a denial of service vulnerability exists in FFmpeg 4.2 due to a memory leak in the     av_dict_set function in dict.c (bsc#1186863).
    - CVE-2020-21688: Fixed a heap-use-after-free in the av_freep function in libavutil/mem.c (bsc#1189348).
    - CVE-2020-21697: Fixed a heap-use-after-free in the mpeg_mux_write_packet function in     libavformat/mpegenc.c (bsc#1189350).
    - CVE-2021-38114: Fixed a not checked return value of the init_vlc function (bsc#1189142).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote SUSE Linux SUSE15 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the openSUSE-SU-2021:2919-1 advisory.

  - A denial of service in the subtitle decoder in FFmpeg 3.2 and 4.1 allows attackers to hog the CPU via a     crafted video file in Matroska format, because handle_open_brace in libavcodec/htmlsubtitles.c has a     complex format argument to sscanf. (CVE-2019-9721)

  - A heap-use-after-free in the av_freep function in libavutil/mem.c of FFmpeg 4.2 allows attackers to     execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2020-21688)

  - A heap-use-after-free in the mpeg_mux_write_packet function in libavformat/mpegenc.c of FFmpeg 4.2 allows     to cause a denial of service (DOS) via a crafted avi file. (CVE-2020-21697)

  - A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in FFmpeg 4.2 due to a memory leak in the avpriv_float_dsp_allocl     function in libavutil/float_dsp.c. (CVE-2020-22046)

  - A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in FFmpeg 4.2 due to a memory leak in the ff_frame_pool_get     function in framepool.c. (CVE-2020-22048)

  - A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in FFmpeg 4.2 due to a memory leak in the wtvfile_open_sector     function in wtvdec.c. (CVE-2020-22049)

  - A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in FFmpeg 4.2 due to a memory leak in the av_dict_set function in     dict.c. (CVE-2020-22054)

  - libavcodec/dnxhddec.c in FFmpeg 4.4 does not check the return value of the init_vlc function, a similar     issue to CVE-2013-0868. (CVE-2021-38114)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
322833	SUSE SLES15: libavcodec-devel / libavcodec57 / libavcodec57-32bit / etc (SUSE-SU-2021:2929-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	critical
267819	Unity Linux 20.1050e / 20.1060e / 20.1070e Security Update: ffmpeg (UTSA-2025-936086)	Nessus	Unity Linux Local Security Checks	high
258814	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2020-21688	Nessus	Misc.	high
183614	Ubuntu 16.04 ESM : FFmpeg vulnerabilities (USN-5167-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	critical
161986	Ubuntu 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS : FFmpeg vulnerabilities (USN-5472-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	critical
154772	Debian DSA-4998-1 : ffmpeg - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	critical
153011	SUSE SLED15: ffmpeg / libavcodec-devel / libavcodec57 / libavdevice57 / etc (SUSE-SU-2021:2919-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
153007	openSUSE 15 Security Update : ffmpeg (openSUSE-SU-2021:2919-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2020-21688

high

Tenable Plugins

critical

high

high

critical

critical

critical

high

high