#VU37963 Integer overflow in Binutils - CVE-2017-16831

Vulnerability identifier: #VU37963

Vulnerability risk: High

CVSSv4.0: 6.1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Amber]

CVE-ID: CVE-2017-16831

CWE-ID: CWE-190

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 non-authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code.

coffgen.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29.1, does not validate the symbol count, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (integer overflow and application crash, or excessive memory allocation) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted PE file.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Binutils: 2.29.1

---

External links
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201811-17
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22385
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=6cee897971d4d7cd37d2a686bb6d2aa3e759c8ca

---

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.