What is CVE-2026-73324?
VLC media player copies an RTSP response line into a fixed buffer without guaranteeing termination and then treats that buffer as a C string. RtspReadLine in modules/access/rtsp/access.c calls strncpy with the full buffer length, which writes no terminator when the source line is at least as long as the destination, and rtsp_get in modules/access/rtsp/rtsp.c allocates that buffer as BUF_SIZE bytes and passes it to strdup. When a server returns a line of 4096 bytes or more, strdup measures its length past the end of the allocation and copies adjacent heap bytes until an incidental zero byte. Because the affected line is the Session header, the disclosed bytes are retained as the session identifier and sent back to the server on every subsequent request, so the operator of a hostile server reads heap memory from the client rather than inferring it. The attacker controls the line length and therefore how far the read runs. A single playlist entry naming a realrtsp URL is sufficient. The module is a build-time option, disabled in some distribution packages and enabled in the official VideoLAN builds.
The record classifies CVE-2026-73324 under weakness classes CWE-125, CWE-170. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs no prior authentication, needs a user to take an action first, and has high impact on confidentiality. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 26 days ago.
Severity and exploitation probability
- CVSS v3.1 base score
- 6.5 — MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N - CVSS v4.0 base score
- 6.9
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N - EPSS (FIRST)
- 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 26.2% of all scored CVEs
- CISA KEV
- Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- Threadlinqs priority
- 4.3/10 — a Threadlinqs composite of the CVSS base score, the EPSS percentile and public exploit availability
- Published
- 2026-09-09
Is CVE-2026-73324 being exploited?
No public exploitation evidence for CVE-2026-73324 is recorded in the sources Threadlinqs tracks — CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, public proof-of-concept repositories and ProjectDiscovery Nuclei — as of 2026-09-09. That is an absence of evidence in those feeds, not a guarantee that the vulnerability is unexploited.
Affected products and versions
- VideoLAN: VLC media player
How to fix CVE-2026-73324
No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-73324 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.
Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-73324
1 tracked threat in the Threadlinqs corpus references CVE-2026-73324, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.
Sources
Enriched from CVE.org, NVD, FIRST EPSS, GitHub Security Advisories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on . This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.