CVE-2025-1816 – A memory leak vulnerability in FFmpeg's IAMF fi... (How to Fix)

Q: What is the severity of CVE-2025-1816?

CVE-2025-1816 has a CVSS score of 4.3 (MEDIUM). A memory leak vulnerability in FFmpeg's IAMF file handler allows remote attackers to cause resource exhaustion by manipulating audio parameters. This affects systems processing untrusted IAMF audio files with vulnerable FFmpeg versions. The vulnerability is problematic but not critical, primarily impacting availability.

📋 TL;DR

A memory leak vulnerability in FFmpeg's IAMF file handler allows remote attackers to cause resource exhaustion by manipulating audio parameters. This affects systems processing untrusted IAMF audio files with vulnerable FFmpeg versions. The vulnerability is problematic but not critical, primarily impacting availability.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:

FFmpeg

Versions: Up to commit 6e26f57f672b05e7b8b052007a83aef99dc81ccb

Operating Systems: All platforms running FFmpeg

Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes

Notes: Only affects systems using FFmpeg to process IAMF audio files; other codecs are unaffected.

⚠️ Manual Verification Required

This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.

Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).

🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.

Recommended Actions:

Review the CVE details at NVD
Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Sustained exploitation could lead to denial of service through memory exhaustion, potentially crashing FFmpeg processes or the host system.

🟠

Likely Case

Degraded performance or application crashes when processing malicious IAMF audio files, requiring process restarts.

🟢

If Mitigated

Minimal impact with proper memory limits and monitoring in place; isolated process crashes without system-wide effects.

🌐 Internet-Facing: MEDIUM - Remote exploitation is possible but requires processing of attacker-controlled IAMF files, which may be limited in typical deployments.

🏢 Internal Only: LOW - Internal systems typically process trusted content; exploitation would require internal threat actors or compromised files.

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ⚠️ Yes

Weaponized: LIKELY

Unauthenticated Exploit: ⚠️ Yes

Complexity: LOW

Proof-of-concept exploit is publicly available; exploitation requires feeding malicious IAMF files to vulnerable FFmpeg instances.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: Commit 0526535cd58444dd264e810b2f3348b4d96cff3b or later

Vendor Advisory: https://ffmpeg.org/

Restart Required: Yes

Instructions:

1. Update FFmpeg to latest version or apply patch 0526535cd58444dd264e810b2f3348b4d96cff3b. 2. Rebuild FFmpeg from source if using custom build. 3. Restart all FFmpeg-dependent services.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Disable IAMF file processing

all

Disable IAMF format support in FFmpeg configuration to prevent exploitation

Recompile FFmpeg with --disable-demuxer=iamf flag

Implement memory limits

linux

Use system or container memory limits to contain potential memory exhaustion

ulimit -v [LIMIT] (Linux)
docker run --memory=[LIMIT] (Docker)

🧯 If You Can't Patch

Implement strict input validation: only allow trusted IAMF files from verified sources
Monitor FFmpeg processes for abnormal memory consumption and restart automatically

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check FFmpeg version: ffmpeg -version | grep 'version' and compare commit hash to 6e26f57f672b05e7b8b052007a83aef99dc81ccb

Check Version:

ffmpeg -version | head -1

Verify Fix Applied:

Verify FFmpeg commit includes 0526535cd58444dd264e810b2f3348b4d96cff3b: git log --oneline | grep 0526535cd58444dd264e810b2f3348b4d96cff3b

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

FFmpeg process crashes
Abnormal memory consumption patterns in system logs
Repeated FFmpeg restarts

Network Indicators:

Unexpected IAMF file transfers to media processing systems
Increased network traffic to FFmpeg services

SIEM Query:

Process:ffmpeg AND (EventID:1000 OR MemoryUsage > [THRESHOLD])

📊 Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2025-1816

CVSS v3 Score: 4.3 (MEDIUM)

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

CWE: CWE-401

EPSS Score: 0.25% exploit probability (47.5th percentile)

Published: March 2, 2025

Last Updated: March 3, 2025

🔗 References

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