What is CVE-2014-6440?

CVE-2014-6440 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Videolan Vlc, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2017-03-28.

How severe is CVE-2014-6440?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Videolan Vlc

CVE-2014-6440

VideoLAN VLC media player before 2.1.5 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2017-03-28 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.050 (91.9th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 92nd percentile — 91.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.050 · newest: 0.050 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Videolan Vlc

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-119 — Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

www.videolan.org/developers/vlc-branch/NEWS (Release Notes, Vendor Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/72950 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201603-08 (vendor-advisory, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
seclists.org/oss-sec/2015/q1/751 (mailing-list, Patch, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
billblough.net/blog/2015/03/04/cve-2014-6440-heap-overflow-in-vlc-transcode-mod… (Technical Description, Exploit, Patch, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2014-6440?: CVE-2014-6440 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Videolan Vlc, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2017-03-28.
How severe is CVE-2014-6440?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.