Vulnerabilities in QNAP, Ffmpeg and VLC
The Secunia security firm has found multiple vulnerabilities in the popular ffmpeg multimedia framework that is the basis for most Linux media players.
Numerous cases of heap memory corruption and null pointer dereferences can allow specially prepared media files to execute malicious code on target systems. Secunia confirmed the vulnerability in the popular ffmpeg version 0.5. The advisory also confirms that some of the security holes have been fixed in the SVN repository and the remainder should be closed immediately.
The VideoLAN Client (VLC) project has meanwhile released version 1.0.2, which fixes a number of stack overflow problems in the AVI, MP4 and ASF demuxers that also allowed specially prepared media files to execute malicious code. Affected were all VideoLAN versions back to 0.5.0, so that the update is recommended for all users. VLC also uses the ffmpeg framework, although it's not clear whether the vulnerabilities correspond to those reported by Secunia. The descriptions are nonetheless very similar.
Even QNAP, the popular maker of NAS hard disks, faces some security issues. As is reported, a secondary key is added to the hard disk encryption and stored in flash memory with insufficient obfuscation, thus enabling an attacker physical or network access to unlock and reproduce the hard disk contents. Especially precarious for a product calling itself secure storage is the presence of what by all appearances is a back door with a weakly protected and nonsensical key. QNAP was informed of the problem and promises a firmware update fix in October.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.
-
LibreOffice 25.2 Has Arrived
If you've been hoping for a release that offers more UI customizations, you're in for a treat.
-
TuxCare Has a Big AlmaLinux 9 Announcement in Store
TuxCare announced it has successfully completed a Security Technical Implementation Guide for AlmaLinux OS 9.
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.