How severe is CVE-2017-16840?

CVE-2017-16840 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8, rated critical severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.

Is CVE-2017-16840 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 3% (87th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2017-16840?

CVE-2017-16840 primarily affects Ffmpeg. In total, 3 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.

How do I fix CVE-2017-16840?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its critical severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.

When was CVE-2017-16840 published?

CVE-2017-16840 was published on 2017-11-21 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2017-16840

CVE-2017-16840 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Ffmpeg with a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-125.

Key facts

Severity: Critical (CVSS 3.x base score 9.8)
CVSS v2: 7.5
EPSS exploit prediction: 3% (87th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-125
Affected product: Ffmpeg
Published: 2017-11-21
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

The VC-2 Video Compression encoder in FFmpeg 3.0 and 3.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) because of incorrect buffer padding for non-Haar wavelets, related to libavcodec/vc2enc.c and libavcodec/vc2enc_dwt.c.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-16840?: The VC-2 Video Compression encoder in FFmpeg 3.0 and 3.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) because of incorrect buffer padding for non-Haar wavelets, related to libavcodec/vc2enc.c and libavcodec/vc2enc_dwt.c.
How severe is CVE-2017-16840?: CVE-2017-16840 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8, rated critical severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.
Is CVE-2017-16840 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 3% (87th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2017-16840?: CVE-2017-16840 primarily affects Ffmpeg. In total, 3 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.
How do I fix CVE-2017-16840?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its critical severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.
When was CVE-2017-16840 published?: CVE-2017-16840 was published on 2017-11-21 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (3)

cpe:2.3:a:ffmpeg:ffmpeg:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:ffmpeg:ffmpeg:3.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

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CVE-2012-2804 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Unspecified vulnerability in libavcodec/indeo3.c in FFmpeg before 0.11 and Libav 0.8.x before 0.8.5 has unknown impact…

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Other CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read) vulnerabilities

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