Vulnerability identifier: #VU24443

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 4.6 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-17358

CWE-ID: CWE-119

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Binutils
Universal components / Libraries / Libraries used by multiple products

Vendor: GNU

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to a boundary error when processing ELF files within the _bfd_stab_section_find_nearest_line() function in syms.c in Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd). A remote attacker can create a specially crafted ELF file, pass it to the affected application and trigger invalid memory access, resulting in denial of service conditions.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may result in complete compromise of vulnerable system.

Mitigation
Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Binutils: 2.31 - 2.31.1

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External links
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-10/msg00072.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-11/msg00008.html
http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23686

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.