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Tell HN: Ffmpeg vulnerability allows attacker to get files from server or PC

69 pointsby ChALkeRover 9 years ago
ffmpeg vulnerability allows reading local files and sending them over network using a specially crafted video file. This affects not only file conversion (including thumbnail generation), but also any other operations that involve ffmpeg processing your file — for example, ffprobe is affected.<p>This is not remote code execution, the vulnerability is limited to reading local files and sending them over network, but that is already bad enough.<p>For example, a specially crafted «video» file uploaded to your server by an attacker could read your website config&#x2F;private keys&#x2F;etc and send that to the attacker once you try to generate a thumbnail for it or just probe it with ffmpeg.<p>On a PC, you don&#x27;t even need to open a file to get affected, just downloading it would be enough in some cases — video files are processed with ffmpeg for filemanager thumbnails (i.e. KDE Dolphin), for search indexers, etc.<p>That vulnerability is public, has code samples to reproduce and build a malicious file, and is not fixed atm.<p>The recommended quick fix is to rebuild ffmpeg without network support (--disable-network configure flag).<p>Original post: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;habrahabr.ru&#x2F;company&#x2F;mailru&#x2F;blog&#x2F;274855&#x2F;<p>The original text is in Russian, use https:&#x2F;&#x2F;translate.yandex.com or https:&#x2F;&#x2F;translate.google.com&#x2F; to read it.

10 comments

tsukikageover 9 years ago
The key insight is that you can construct an HTTP live streaming playlist that causes the player to pull lines from a series of files, concatenate them together to form a URL then visit that URL, making it possible to exfiltrate data.<p>It is unclear whether this is ffmpeg-specific, or something the HTTP live streaming protocol actually requires and therefore potentially of wider impact; I can&#x27;t find any obvious reference to this feature with either a quick Google or a skim of the Apple RFC. Does anyone know?
brudgersover 9 years ago
Link: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;habrahabr.ru&#x2F;company&#x2F;mailru&#x2F;blog&#x2F;274855&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;habrahabr.ru&#x2F;company&#x2F;mailru&#x2F;blog&#x2F;274855&#x2F;</a>
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espesover 9 years ago
Heh, this &#x27;feature&#x27; was the intended solution of a CTF challenge 3 months ago: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;ctfs&#x2F;write-ups-2015&#x2F;tree&#x2F;master&#x2F;9447-ctf-2015&#x2F;web&#x2F;super-turbo-atomic-gif-converter" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;ctfs&#x2F;write-ups-2015&#x2F;tree&#x2F;master&#x2F;9447-ctf-...</a>
anonfunctionover 9 years ago
Can the malicious video file be an actual mp4 file? We&#x27;re accepting video and running it through ffmpeg, however we first verify the file is an mp4 using <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;golang.org&#x2F;src&#x2F;net&#x2F;http&#x2F;sniff.go" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;golang.org&#x2F;src&#x2F;net&#x2F;http&#x2F;sniff.go</a>
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abrezasover 9 years ago
Patch on chrome that enabled ffmpeg networking <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;codereview.chromium.org&#x2F;1391383002&#x2F;patch&#x2F;1&#x2F;10001" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;codereview.chromium.org&#x2F;1391383002&#x2F;patch&#x2F;1&#x2F;10001</a>
joeyspnover 9 years ago
PC... and also mac? I have ffmpeg installed via homebrew...
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ChALkeRover 9 years ago
By the way, mplayer is also affected, even after installing a fixed version of ffmpeg.
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ChALkeRover 9 years ago
Hm. Why did this end up in [ask]? Perhaps I made a mistake when posting this =).
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josesilvaover 9 years ago
Any CVE or answer from upstream about it? Is Firefox as well affected?
dzbarskyover 9 years ago
This is why you should use containers for running binaries on user-supplied data.