#VU36734 Out-of-bounds read in elfutils - CVE-2018-16403

Vulnerability identifier: #VU36734

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv4.0: 4.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-16403

CWE-ID: CWE-125

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
elfutils
Server applications / File servers (FTP/HTTP)

Vendor: Sourceware

Description

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

libdw in elfutils 0.173 checks the end of the attributes list incorrectly in dwarf_getabbrev in dwarf_getabbrev.c and dwarf_hasattr in dwarf_hasattr.c, leading to a heap-based buffer over-read and an application crash.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

elfutils: 0.173

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External links
https://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-06/msg00052.html
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2197
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23529
https://sourceware.org/git/?p=elfutils.git;a=commit;h=6983e59b727458a6c64d9659c85f08218bc4fcda
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4012-1/

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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.