Debian: DSA-2218-1 Critical: VLC Heap Overflow Impacting Users

Aliz Hammond discovered that the MP4 decoder plugin of vlc, a multimedia
player and streamer, is vulnerable to a heap-based buffer overflow.
This has been introduced by a wrong data type being used for a size
calculation. An attacker could use this flaw to trick a victim into
opening a specially crafted MP4 file and possibly execute arbitrary code
or crash the media player.


The oldstable distribution (lenny) is not affected by this problem.

For the stable distribution (squeeze), this problem has been fixed in
version 1.1.3-1squeeze5.

For the testing distribution (wheezy), this problem will be fixed soon.

For the unstable distribution (sid), this problem has been fixed in
version 1.1.8-3.


We recommend that you upgrade your vlc packages.

Further information about Debian Security Advisories, how to apply
these updates to your system and frequently asked questions can be
found at: http://www.debian.org/security/