CVE-2019-15784 in Secure Reliable Transport
Summary
by MITRE
Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) through 1.3.4 has a CSndUList array overflow if there are many SRT connections.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/07/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-15784 affects Secure Reliable Transport SRT versions through 1.3.4 and represents a critical array overflow condition that can lead to system instability and potential denial of service scenarios. This flaw manifests when the CSndUList array exceeds its allocated memory boundaries due to an excessive number of SRT connections being established simultaneously. The Secure Reliable Transport protocol is designed to provide secure, low-latency video streaming over unreliable networks, making it widely adopted in broadcast and media applications where reliability and performance are paramount.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate bounds checking within the SRT protocol's connection management subsystem. When numerous SRT connections are established concurrently, the CSndUList array fails to properly validate the number of active connections against its predefined capacity limits. This array overflow condition creates a classic buffer overflow scenario that can result in memory corruption, application crashes, and potentially arbitrary code execution if exploited by malicious actors. The vulnerability specifically impacts the sender-side connection list management functionality where multiple SRT endpoints attempt to establish connections simultaneously, overwhelming the system's ability to handle the connection load within allocated memory structures.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to encompass potential security compromise and system instability across deployed SRT implementations. Organizations utilizing SRT for critical video streaming applications face significant risk of service interruption when the connection threshold is exceeded, particularly in high-traffic scenarios such as live broadcasting or large-scale content distribution networks. The vulnerability can be exploited by attackers who intentionally establish multiple concurrent connections to trigger the overflow condition, leading to denial of service against legitimate users. This weakness also poses challenges for network administrators who must balance connection capacity requirements with the risk of system instability, as the overflow can occur without explicit error handling or graceful degradation mechanisms.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2019-15784 should prioritize immediate patching of affected SRT implementations to version 1.3.5 or later, which contains the necessary bounds checking fixes. Network administrators should implement connection rate limiting and monitoring to prevent excessive concurrent connection attempts that could trigger the overflow condition. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-129 Input Validation and CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write categories, representing a fundamental flaw in input validation and memory management. From an attack surface perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for Network Denial of Service and T1595.001 for Scanning for Vulnerabilities, as it creates both a potential DoS vector and a reconnaissance target for attackers seeking to identify vulnerable SRT implementations. Organizations should also consider implementing intrusion detection systems capable of identifying unusual connection patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts and establish proper connection throttling mechanisms to prevent the system from reaching the problematic threshold conditions that trigger the array overflow.