Medium · published September 19, 2026
FluidSynth is a software synthesizer based on the SoundFont 2 specifications. From 2.5.0 until 2.5.6, the native DLS parser validates ptbl chunks with the unsigned expression cues * 4 + cbsize without checking whether the multiplication and addition fit in 32 bits. A crafted DLS file can supply a large cues value that wraps the expression and passes the chunk-size check, causing poolcues.resize(cues) to request approximately four gigabytes and the parser to read billions of entries beyond the chunk boundary. The excessive allocation and invalid reads can cause denial of service. Builds with enable-native-dls set to OFF are not exposed. This issue is fixed in version 2.5.6.