CVE-2011-0522

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.8 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 51.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2011-02-07 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-119

Description

The StripTags function in (1) the USF decoder (modules/codec/subtitles/subsdec.c) and (2) the Text decoder (modules/codec/subtitles/subsusf.c) in VideoLAN VLC Media Player 1.1 before 1.1.6-rc allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a subtitle with an opening "<" without a closing ">" in an MKV file, which triggers heap memory corruption, as demonstrated using refined-australia-blu720p-sample.mkv.

Affected products

VideoLAN VLC: 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.5 (+1)

References

http://git.videolan.org/gitweb.cgi?p=vlc/vlc-1.1.git%3Ba=tag%3Bh=bb16813ddb61a53113c71bccc525559405785452
http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc-devel/2011-January/078607.html
http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc-devel/2011-January/078614.html
http://securityreason.com/securityalert/8064
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/16108
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/01/25/7
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/01/25/9
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/46008
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0225
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/65029
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A12414
http://git.videolan.org/gitweb.cgi?p=vlc/vlc-1.1.git%3Ba=tag%3Bh=bb16813ddb61a53113c71bccc525559405785452

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