music-metadata is a metadata parser for audio and video media files. Prior to 11.16.0, the APEv2 parser reads an attacker-controlled tag-item size and allocates a Uint8Array for a binary item before proving that the declared item fits in the remaining tag or file data. A small crafted APE file can therefore trigger a disproportionate allocation, including through cover-art items, and repeated or concurrent parsing can exhaust process memory. The demonstrated impact is availability loss only. This issue is fixed in version 11.16.0.

Affected: npm: music-metadata

## Summary

`music-metadata` 11.15.0 is vulnerable to uncontrolled memory allocation in the APEv2 parser.

The parser reads the size of an APEv2 tag item from the input file and uses that value to allocate memory before checking whether the file actually contains that many bytes. A small crafted `.ape` file can declare a very large binary tag item, such as cover art, and force the parser to allocate a large buffer.

This issue is specific to APEv2 parsing and is separate from the ID3v2, MP4, and EBML advisories.

## Affected component

- `lib/apev2/APEv2Token.ts` - `lib/apev2/APEv2Parser.ts`

The untrusted size is read here:

```ts size: Token.UINT32_LE.get(buf, off) ```

It is later used directly for allocation when parsing binary tag items:

```ts const picData = new Uint8Array(tagItemHeader.size); await this.tokenizer.readBuffer(picData); ```

The allocation happens before the parser confirms that the declared size fits inside the remaining file data.

## Impact

An application that parses untrusted `.ape` files with `music-metadata` may be vulnerable to denial of service through memory exhaustion.

The demonstrated payload is only 134 bytes but causes a 128 MiB allocation with default options. Concurrent or repeated parses can multiply the memory impact.

The impact is limited to availability. No confidentiality or integrity impact has been demonstrated.

## Proof of Concept

Run from the project checkout after compiling the source:

```bash npm install --ignore-scripts…