Resource exhaustion via unchecked XBIN segment probing
Published Jan 6, 2025 · Updated Nov 3, 2025
Denial of service in the HLS demuxer in FFmpeg 2.0 through 6.0 allows remote attackers to exhaust CPU and storage. When input format is not enforced, libavformat/hls.c allows mismatched segment extensions to retain the XBIN demuxer, so an 11-byte XBIN header makes arbitrary following bytes decode as character-and-color pairs. A crafted playlist can turn a 16 MB input into a 352 MB, 43-minute output, consuming transcoding time and disk capacity without authentication.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in the HLS demuxer in FFmpeg 2.0 through 6.0 allows remote attackers to exhaust CPU and storage. When input format is not enforced, libavformat/hls.c allows mismatched segment extensions to retain the XBIN demuxer, so an 11-byte XBIN header makes arbitrary following bytes decode as character-and-color pairs. A crafted playlist can turn a 16 MB input into a 352 MB, 43-minute output, consuming transcoding time and disk capacity without authentication.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-6604
- Published
- Jan 6, 2025
- Updated
- Nov 3, 2025
- Vendor
- FFmpeg
- Product
- FFmpeg
- Classifications
- CWE-99, CWE-94, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 6, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Nov 3, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=2.0 <6.*
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- HLS XBIN resource-amplification reproductionproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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