#VU38137 Out-of-bounds read in Binutils - CVE-2017-15021

Vulnerability identifier: #VU38137

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv4.0: 4 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/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-2017-15021

CWE-ID: CWE-125

Exploitation vector: Local

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 in bfd_get_debug_link_info_1 in opncls.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29,. A remote attacker can perform a denial of service (heap-based buffer over-read and application crash) via a crafted ELF file, related to bfd_getl32.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Binutils: 2.29

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External links
https://blogs.gentoo.org/ago/2017/10/03/binutils-heap-based-buffer-overflow-in-bfd_getl32-opncls-c/
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22197
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=52b36c51e5bf6d7600fdc6ba115b170b0e78e31d

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

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