#VU38980 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in Binutils - CVE-2017-9039

Vulnerability identifier: #VU38980

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-2017-9039

CWE-ID: CWE-770

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.

GNU Binutils 2.28 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a crafted ELF file with many program headers, related to the get_program_headers function in readelf.c.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Binutils: 2.28

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External links
https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98580
https://blogs.gentoo.org/ago/2017/05/12/binutils-multiple-crashes/
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201709-02
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=82156ab704b08b124d319c0decdbd48b3ca2dac5

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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.