VulnerabilityPublished 27 Oct 2024Updated 30 Oct 2024

CVE-2024-50613: libsndfile · Reachable Assertion

Affects libsndfileSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.5 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 45% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Oct 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
GitHublibsndfile/libsndfile`pkg:github/libsndfile/libsndfile`Other threats	Affected <=1.2.2	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-50613, organizations should: 1) Monitor libsndfile project communications and repositories for official patches or updates addressing this assertion failure and apply them promptly. 2) Implement input validation and sanitization to restrict or verify audio files before processing, especially from untrusted sources, to reduce the risk of triggering the assertion. 3) Employ application-level sandboxing or process isolation for audio encoding components to contain crashes and prevent wider system impact. 4) Use fallback mechanisms or watchdog timers to automatically restart or recover from unexpected application exits. 5) Where feasible, disable or avoid using the MPEG Layer 3 encoding feature in libsndfile if not required. 6) Conduct thorough testing of audio processing workflows with diverse input to detect potential crashes. 7) Educate users and administrators about the risk of processing untrusted audio files and encourage cautious handling. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on proactive input management, containment strategies, and operational resilience specific to the nature of this vulnerability.

Description

libsndfile through 1.2.2 has a reachable assertion, that may lead to application exit, in mpeg_l3_encode.c mpeg_l3_encoder_close.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2024-50613 is denial of service through application termination. This can disrupt audio processing workflows, multimedia applications, or any system component relying on libsndfile for MPEG Layer 3 encoding. While it does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, availability loss can affect user experience, service reliability, and operational continuity. In environments where audio encoding is part of automated pipelines or real-time processing, unexpected application exits could cause cascading failures or service interruptions. Organizations deploying libsndfile in client applications, media servers, or embedded systems may face increased downtime or require manual restarts. Although no known exploits exist yet, the low complexity and network attack vector mean attackers could craft malicious audio files to trigger the issue remotely, especially if user interaction (e.g., opening or processing a file) occurs. This vulnerability could be leveraged in targeted denial of service attacks against multimedia platforms or software that processes user-supplied audio content.

CWE-617Reachable Assertion (opens in a new tab)
Base weakness
The product contains an assert() or similar statement that can be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other behavior that is more severe than necessary.
Implementation
Make sensitive open/close operation non reachable by directly user-controlled data (e.g. open/close resources)
Implementation · Input Validation
Perform input validation on user data.
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

github.com/libsndfile/libsndfile/issues/1034 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Feb 2026, 01:00 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-617

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats