Critical Code Execution Vulnerability Found in MKVToolNix Tools that Parses MKV Files

A critical code execution vulnerability detected in MKVToolNix utility that used to create, inspect Matroska files(.mkv) on Linux, Windows, and other operating systems.

The MKVToolNix contains a set of tools that phrases Matroska file format, the Matroska file extension .MKV for video, MK3D for stereoscopic video, MKA for audio-only files and MKS for subtitle-only files.

The MKV files are actually the multimedia container format that incorporates audio, video, and subtitles into a single file, it was found in 2002.

Security researchers from Talos disclosed a use-after-free vulnerability tracked TALOS-2018-0694 (CVE-2018-4022) in MKVToolNix mkvinfo tool that handles the MKV file format.

This vulnerability can be triggered by an attacker with a maliciously crafted MKV file that would allow an attacker to execute code in the context of the current user.

The vulnerability was tested by researchers with MKVToolNix MKVINFO v25.0.0 that handles MKV file. The vulnerability occurs when the parser validates the current element for a particular value if there is no value then the delete operation triggers a use-after-free vulnerability.

“While reading a new element, the parser attempts to validate the current element by checking if it has a particular valid value. If there is no such value [1], then the parser deletes the element since the read was invalid [2].”

Now the vulnerability fixed with MKVToolNix toolset version 28.2.0, users are advised to update with the recent versions.

Last week another critical code execution vulnerability identified in LIVE555 Streaming Media RTSP Server library used by VLC and other media players.