CVE-2026-61626
libass: Out-of-bounds bit clears for negative Matroska ReadOrder values
What happened?
libass is a portable subtitle renderer for the ASS/SSA (Advanced Substation Alpha/Substation Alpha) subtitle format. From 0.17.4 until 0.17.5, libass event pruning does not guard negative Matroska `ReadOrder` values, allowing an attacker to clear arbitrarily many bits to zero at attacker-controlled positions near the NULL pointer. Exploitation requires a malicious Matroska stream loaded through `ass_process_chunk`, enabled read-order checking, and later pruning of the malicious events. Read-order checking is enabled by default unless `ass_set_check_readorder` is called with zero; pruning must occur explicitly through `ass_prune_events` or through automatic pruning previously enabled with `ass_configure_prune`. On common systems with arithmetic right shift, 32-bit int values, the upper address region reserved to the kernel, and matching binary/kernel architecture, the expected consequence is denial of service. More extensive exploitation on uncommon systems is theoretical and strongly constrained by the target addresses, bit-clearing-only mutation, and ASLR. This issue is fixed in version 0.17.5.
Affected software and versions
| Software | Version information | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| libasslibass | affected: >= 0.17.4, < 0.17.5 | See vendor advisory |
Version information comes from the source record and can include unaffected products and exceptions. Distribution packages may contain backported fixes: an older upstream version alone does not prove a server is affected.
Is it being exploited?
This CVE was not listed in the CISA catalogue at our last retrieval. This does not establish that exploitation is absent.
How to respond
- Confirm the product, installed package version, and any configuration requirements in the vendor advisory.
- Follow the vendor’s remediation or workaround guidance in the references below. Structured fixed-version data is unavailable here; the publisher’s description may include a fix or workaround.
- Restart affected services if required, then verify the running version. Known exploitation may warrant investigation as well as patching.