#VU38169 Infinite loop in Binutils - CVE-2017-14933

Vulnerability identifier: #VU38169

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-2017-14933

CWE-ID: CWE-835

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 perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

read_formatted_entries in dwarf2.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via a crafted ELF file.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Binutils: 2.29

---

External links
https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101203
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201811-17
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22210
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=30d0157a2ad64e64e5ff9fcc0dbe78a3e682f573
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=33e0a9a056bd23e923b929a4f2ab049ade0b1c32

---

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.