1. A method, comprising: receiving one or more frames of encoded digital streaming data in a system having a processor module, a memory and a hardware decoder accelerator; decoding the one or more frames of encoded digital streaming data using the hardware decoder accelerator; using a software security layer to protect the system against exploitation of the hardware decoder accelerator by malicious data embedded in the one or more frames of encoded digital streaming data, wherein the software security layer performs a data value check on data within the one or more frames when the data is used.