#VU38809 Out-of-bounds read in Binutils - CVE-2017-9955

Vulnerability identifier: #VU38809

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-2017-9955

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 The get_build_id function in opncls.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.28,. A remote attacker can perform a denial of service (heap-based buffer over-read and application crash) via a crafted file in which a certain size field is larger than a corresponding data field, as demonstrated by mishandling within the objdump program.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Binutils: 2.28

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External links
https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/99573
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=21665

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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.