CVE-2026-5292
Overview
Background
- I420 / YUV planar frame
- a
VideoFramewith separate Y, U, and V planes, each with its ownstride(bytes per row); U and V are the two chroma planes. - Stride
- the row pitch of a plane, which may legally differ between U and V when a frame is constructed directly (e.g. via WebCodecs
VideoFramewith explicit per-plane layout). - Software encoders
- libaom (AV1), libvpx (VP8/VP9), and OpenH264 code paths in
media/video/that consume aVideoFrameand often assume a single shared chroma stride for both U and V. - `GetConversionFormat`
- a helper that decides whether the frame must be converted/copied to a target
VideoPixelFormatbefore encoding, returningnulloptwhen no conversion is needed.
Root Cause Analysis
The software encoders fed U- and V-plane pointers to the underlying encoder libraries, which internally assume (or convert to) a single chroma stride and therefore apply the U-plane stride when walking the V plane. When a frame was created with stride(Plane::kV) != stride(Plane::kU) — easily done through WebCodecs — and the U stride was larger than the V plane’s actual allocation, the library read past the end of the V buffer, an out-of-bounds read. The pre-patch encode paths only forced a manual copy for pixel-format mismatch or resize (needs_resize), so a stride-mismatched but otherwise directly-encodable I420 frame bypassed the copy and reached the library with inconsistent strides.
The fix computes a requires_copy flag that is additionally true when frame->stride(Plane::kU) != frame->stride(Plane::kV) (for YUV planar frames with at least 3 planes), and threads it into GetConversionFormat (parameter renamed needs_resize → needs_copy) so a mismatched-stride frame is converted into a freshly allocated, single-stride temp frame before encoding. The shipped EncodeFrameWithMismatchedStrides test allocates a deliberately small V buffer with a huge U stride to reproduce the OOB read.
Attack Path
- Craft a mismatched-stride frame
Web content uses WebCodecs to construct an
I420VideoFramewhose V-plane stride is smaller than its U-plane stride (and whose V allocation is correspondingly small). - Submit to a software encoder
The page configures a
VideoEncoderbacked by a software AV1/VP8/VP9/OpenH264 encoder and callsencode()on the frame. - Bypass the old copy gate
Pre-patch, the frame matches the encoder’s native format and needs no resize, so
needs_resizeis false and no normalizing copy is made. - Out-of-bounds read The encoder library walks the V plane using the larger U stride and reads past the end of the V buffer, producing an OOB read (crash or heap over-read of adjacent memory).
Impact Assessment
VideoFrame with mismatched U/V strides; the read occurs in the renderer/GPU-side media encoding code. The vendor advisory rates this medium (“Out of bounds read in WebCodecs”) and does not report in-the-wild exploitation; the diff demonstrates an OOB read only, so any information-disclosure or further-corruption primitive is (inferred).Changed Functions
| Function | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|
switchmedia/video/av1_video_encoder.cc |
modified | |
ifmedia/video/av1_video_encoder.cc |
modified | |
ifmedia/video/openh264_video_encoder.cc |
modified | |
TEST_Pmedia/video/software_video_encoder_test.cc |
modified | |
switchmedia/video/vpx_video_encoder.cc |
modified | |
ifmedia/video/vpx_video_encoder.cc |
modified |
Files Changed
media/video/av1_video_encoder.ccmedia/video/openh264_video_encoder.ccmedia/video/software_video_encoder_test.ccmedia/video/vpx_video_encoder.cc
Audit Directions
- Per-plane stride assumptionsSearch encoder/decoder and image-processing code that handles planar YUV for any place that uses one plane’s stride (or a single
uv_stride) for another plane; verify each plane is indexed with its ownstride(Plane::kX). - WebCodecs-constructed framesTreat
VideoFrames originating from WebCodecs as adversarially laid out (arbitrary strides, offsets, visible rect) and ensure every native consumer normalizes or validates layout before use. - Copy/convert gating conditionsReview
needs_resize/needs_copy-style gates feeding third-party libraries (libaom, libvpx, OpenH264) to ensure they cover format, size, aspect ratio, and per-plane stride consistency.
Patch
From c177cadab426b31ccc2d3a1bca86a990004b2709 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eugene Zemtsov <eugene@chromium.org>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:08:27 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] media: Fix OOB read in software encoders when U-stride != V-stride
When an I420 VideoFrame is created with different strides for the U and
V planes (e.g., via WebCodecs), passing it to software encoders (AV1,
VPX, OpenH264) can cause an out-of-bounds read. These encoder libraries
often assume or internally convert to a representation with a single
chroma stride, ignoring the V plane stride.
This change forces a manual copy of the frame before encoding if the U
and V strides do not match, ensuring safe processing.
Bug: 492213293, 491655161
Change-Id: Ifcf324ff2201fbb56d53e65cc98261790b9b170b
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/7664025
Commit-Queue: Eugene Zemtsov <eugene@chromium.org>
Reviewed-by: Erik Språng <sprang@chromium.org>
Reviewed-by: Thomas Guilbert <tguilbert@chromium.org>
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/main@{#1598780}
---
diff --git a/media/video/av1_video_encoder.cc b/media/video/av1_video_encoder.cc
index bba5e59fb..c91d30a 100644
--- a/media/video/av1_video_encoder.cc
+++ b/media/video/av1_video_encoder.cc
@@ -49,16 +49,16 @@
// pixel format. If no conversion is needed returns nullopt.
std::optional<VideoPixelFormat> GetConversionFormat(VideoCodecProfile profile,
VideoPixelFormat format,
- bool needs_resize) {
+ bool needs_copy) {
switch (profile) {
case AV1PROFILE_PROFILE_MAIN:
if ((format != PIXEL_FORMAT_NV12 && format != PIXEL_FORMAT_I420) ||
- needs_resize) {
+ needs_copy) {
return PIXEL_FORMAT_I420;
}
break;
case AV1PROFILE_PROFILE_HIGH:
- if (format != PIXEL_FORMAT_I444 || needs_resize) {
+ if (format != PIXEL_FORMAT_I444 || needs_copy) {
return PIXEL_FORMAT_I444;
}
break;
@@ -465,12 +465,22 @@
return;
}
+ bool requires_copy = frame->visible_rect().size() != options_.frame_size ||
+ (IsYuvPlanar(frame->format()) &&
+ VideoFrame::NumPlanes(frame->format()) >= 3 &&
+ frame->stride(VideoFrame::Plane::kU) !=
+ frame->stride(VideoFrame::Plane::kV));
+
// Format conversion or resizing may be necessary to get the frame into the
// form needed by libaom for encoding.
if (auto conversion_format =
- GetConversionFormat(profile_, frame->format(),
- /*needs_resize=*/frame->visible_rect().size() !=
- options_.frame_size)) {
+ GetConversionFormat(profile_, frame->format(), requires_copy)) {
+ // In cases where we need to
+ // - enlarge the frame
+ // - change the pixel format
+ // - change the aspect ratio or
+ // - use matching U and V strides
+ // we are forced to convert and rescale manually.
auto temp_frame = frame_pool_.CreateFrame(
*conversion_format, options_.frame_size, gfx::Rect(options_.frame_size),
options_.frame_size, frame->timestamp());
diff --git a/media/video/openh264_video_encoder.cc b/media/video/openh264_video_encoder.cc
index d949d3d5..c29a9fce 100644
--- a/media/video/openh264_video_encoder.cc
+++ b/media/video/openh264_video_encoder.cc
@@ -427,12 +427,18 @@
}
}
- if (frame->format() != PIXEL_FORMAT_I420 ||
- NeedsManualResizing(frame->visible_rect().size(), options_.frame_size)) {
+ bool requires_copy =
+ frame->format() != PIXEL_FORMAT_I420 ||
+ NeedsManualResizing(frame->visible_rect().size(), options_.frame_size) ||
+ frame->stride(VideoFrame::Plane::kU) !=
+ frame->stride(VideoFrame::Plane::kV);
+
+ if (requires_copy) {
// In cases where we need to
// - enlarge the frame
- // - change the pixel format or
- // - change the aspect ratio
+ // - change the pixel format
+ // - change the aspect ratio or
+ // - use matching U and V strides
// we are forced to convert and rescale manually.
auto i420_frame = frame_pool_.CreateFrame(
PIXEL_FORMAT_I420, options_.frame_size, gfx::Rect(options_.frame_size),
diff --git a/media/video/software_video_encoder_test.cc b/media/video/software_video_encoder_test.cc
index fc82aab2..4ec61cd 100644
--- a/media/video/software_video_encoder_test.cc
+++ b/media/video/software_video_encoder_test.cc
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
#include <memory>
#include <string>
+#include "base/containers/heap_array.h"
#include "base/feature_list.h"
#include "base/functional/callback_helpers.h"
#include "base/logging.h"
@@ -1092,6 +1093,42 @@
EXPECT_EQ(chunks.size(), total_frames_count);
}
+TEST_P(SoftwareVideoEncoderTest, EncodeFrameWithMismatchedStrides) {
+ VideoEncoder::Options options = CreateDefaultOptions();
+ options.frame_size = gfx::Size(64, 64);
+
+ encoder_->Initialize(profile_, options, /*info_cb=*/base::DoNothing(),
+ /*output_cb=*/base::DoNothing(),
+ ValidateStatusThenQuitCB());
+ RunUntilQuit();
+
+ // Create a frame with mismatched strides
+ gfx::Size size(64, 64);
+ size_t y_stride = 64;
+ size_t u_stride = 65536; // Large U stride
+ size_t v_stride = 32;
+
+ // We allocate memory for the data. To cause an OOB read crash if the U
+ // stride is used for the V plane, we allocate a small buffer for the V plane.
+ auto y_data = base::HeapArray<uint8_t>::WithSize(y_stride * size.height());
+ auto u_data =
+ base::HeapArray<uint8_t>::WithSize(u_stride * (size.height() / 2));
+ auto v_data =
+ base::HeapArray<uint8_t>::WithSize(v_stride * (size.height() / 2));
+
+ auto frame = VideoFrame::WrapExternalYuvData(
+ PIXEL_FORMAT_I420, size, gfx::Rect(size), size, y_stride, u_stride,
+ v_stride, y_data, u_data, v_data, base::TimeDelta());
+ frame->AddDestructionObserver(
+ base::BindOnce([](base::HeapArray<uint8_t>, base::HeapArray<uint8_t>,
+ base::HeapArray<uint8_t>) {},
+ std::move(y_data), std::move(u_data), std::move(v_data)));
+
+ encoder_->Encode(std::move(frame), VideoEncoder::EncodeOptions(false),
+ ValidateStatusThenQuitCB());
+ RunUntilQuit();
+}
+
TEST_P(SoftwareVideoEncoderTest, ReconfigureWithResizingNumberOfThreads) {
int outputs_count = 0;
VideoEncoder::Options options = CreateDefaultOptions();
diff --git a/media/video/vpx_video_encoder.cc b/media/video/vpx_video_encoder.cc
index 681b1b6..a661729e 100644
--- a/media/video/vpx_video_encoder.cc
+++ b/media/video/vpx_video_encoder.cc
@@ -258,29 +258,29 @@
// pixel format. If no conversion is needed returns nullopt.
std::optional<VideoPixelFormat> GetConversionFormat(VideoCodecProfile profile,
VideoPixelFormat format,
- bool needs_resize) {
+ bool needs_copy) {
switch (profile) {
case VP8PROFILE_ANY:
case VP9PROFILE_PROFILE0:
if ((format != PIXEL_FORMAT_NV12 && format != PIXEL_FORMAT_I420) ||
- needs_resize) {
+ needs_copy) {
return PIXEL_FORMAT_I420;
}
break;
case VP9PROFILE_PROFILE1:
- if (format != PIXEL_FORMAT_I444 || needs_resize) {
+ if (format != PIXEL_FORMAT_I444 || needs_copy) {
return PIXEL_FORMAT_I444;
}
break;
case VP9PROFILE_PROFILE2:
- if (format != PIXEL_FORMAT_YUV420P10 || needs_resize) {
+ if (format != PIXEL_FORMAT_YUV420P10 || needs_copy) {
// VideoFrameConverter doesn't support 10bit yet, so output I420 then
// convert to I010.
return PIXEL_FORMAT_I420;
}
break;
case VP9PROFILE_PROFILE3:
- if (format != PIXEL_FORMAT_YUV444P10 || needs_resize) {
+ if (format != PIXEL_FORMAT_YUV444P10 || needs_copy) {
// VideoFrameConverter doesn't support 10bit yet, so output I444 then
// convert to I410.
return PIXEL_FORMAT_I444;
@@ -596,12 +596,22 @@
return;
}
+ bool requires_copy = frame->visible_rect().size() != options_.frame_size ||
+ (IsYuvPlanar(frame->format()) &&
Regression Test / PoC
diff --git a/media/video/software_video_encoder_test.cc b/media/video/software_video_encoder_test.cc
index fc82aab2..4ec61cd 100644
--- a/media/video/software_video_encoder_test.cc
+++ b/media/video/software_video_encoder_test.cc
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
#include <memory>
#include <string>
+#include "base/containers/heap_array.h"
#include "base/feature_list.h"
#include "base/functional/callback_helpers.h"
#include "base/logging.h"
@@ -1092,6 +1093,42 @@
EXPECT_EQ(chunks.size(), total_frames_count);
}
+TEST_P(SoftwareVideoEncoderTest, EncodeFrameWithMismatchedStrides) {
+ VideoEncoder::Options options = CreateDefaultOptions();
+ options.frame_size = gfx::Size(64, 64);
+
+ encoder_->Initialize(profile_, options, /*info_cb=*/base::DoNothing(),
+ /*output_cb=*/base::DoNothing(),
+ ValidateStatusThenQuitCB());
+ RunUntilQuit();
+
+ // Create a frame with mismatched strides
+ gfx::Size size(64, 64);
+ size_t y_stride = 64;
+ size_t u_stride = 65536; // Large U stride
+ size_t v_stride = 32;
+
+ // We allocate memory for the data. To cause an OOB read crash if the U
+ // stride is used for the V plane, we allocate a small buffer for the V plane.
+ auto y_data = base::HeapArray<uint8_t>::WithSize(y_stride * size.height());
+ auto u_data =
+ base::HeapArray<uint8_t>::WithSize(u_stride * (size.height() / 2));
+ auto v_data =
+ base::HeapArray<uint8_t>::WithSize(v_stride * (size.height() / 2));
+
+ auto frame = VideoFrame::WrapExternalYuvData(
+ PIXEL_FORMAT_I420, size, gfx::Rect(size), size, y_stride, u_stride,
+ v_stride, y_data, u_data, v_data, base::TimeDelta());
+ frame->AddDestructionObserver(
+ base::BindOnce([](base::HeapArray<uint8_t>, base::HeapArray<uint8_t>,
+ base::HeapArray<uint8_t>) {},
+ std::move(y_data), std::move(u_data), std::move(v_data)));
+
+ encoder_->Encode(std::move(frame), VideoEncoder::EncodeOptions(false),
+ ValidateStatusThenQuitCB());
+ RunUntilQuit();
+}
+
TEST_P(SoftwareVideoEncoderTest, ReconfigureWithResizingNumberOfThreads) {
int outputs_count = 0;
VideoEncoder::Options options = CreateDefaultOptions();
Original Bug Report
WebCodecs libaom, libvpx: OOB Read in AV1 and VP9 encoder when encoding I420 frames with mismatched U and V strides
Description:
Providing an I420 VideoFrame with different strides for the U and V planes to an AV1 VideoEncoder causes a severe out-of-bounds memory read (EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION) in the underlying software encoder (libaom).
This can be triggered directly from JavaScript using the WebCodecs API by manually specifying the plane layouts and strides during VideoFrame construction.
Reproduction Steps:
- Open the attached HTML file (poc.html) in Chrome.
- The page uses WebCodecs to construct an I420 VideoFrame with a massive U stride (65536) and a normal V stride (32), then passes it to an AV1 VideoEncoder.
- Observe the renderer crash due to an Access Violation.
Crash Stack :
1 Received fatal exception EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION
2 media!copy_and_extend_plane [0x7fff7b5c82ed+4ed] (third_party\libaom\source\libaom\av1\encoder\extend.c:34)
3 media!av1_copy_and_extend_frame [0x7fff7b5c7502+5c2] (third_party\libaom\source\libaom\av1\encoder\extend.c:158)
4 media!av1_lookahead_push [0x7fff7b5c8b96+1a6] (third_party\libaom\source\libaom\av1\encoder\lookahead.c:153)
5 media!av1_receive_raw_frame [0x7fff7b5dacd0+c0] (third_party\libaom\source\libaom\av1\encoder\encoder.c:4765)
6 media!encoder_encode [0x7fff7b5f3f39+a69] (third_party\libaom\source\libaom\av1\av1_cx_iface.c:3475)
7 media!aom_codec_encode [0x7fff7b601ea9+b9] (third_party\libaom\source\libaom\aom\src\aom_encoder.c:191)
8 media!media::Av1VideoEncoder::Encode [0x7fff7af43835+cf5] (media\video\av1_video_encoder.cc:602)
Root Cause:
- media::Av1VideoEncoder::Encode correctly maps the three independent VideoFrame strides into the aom_image_t struct (which supports independent strides for all planes).
- Deep inside aom_codec_encode, libaom converts the aom_image_t to its internal YV12_BUFFER_CONFIG representation using image2yuvconfig().
- YV12_BUFFER_CONFIG does not support independent chroma strides; it only has a single uv_stride field. image2yuvconfig() populates this field solely using the U plane
stride (
yv12->uv_stride = img->stride[AOM_PLANE_U];), silently ignoring the V plane stride. - When av1_copy_and_extend_frame is called, it uses the inflated uv_stride (from the U plane) to read from the V buffer, resulting in an OOB read.