#VU76486 Heap-based buffer overflow in Binutils - CVE-2023-1972

Vulnerability identifier: #VU76486

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv4.0: 2.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-1972

CWE-ID: CWE-122

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 attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to a boundary error within the _bfd_elf_slurp_version_tables() function in bfd/elf.c. A remote attacker can pass specially crafted file to the application, trigger a heap-based buffer overflow and perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

Mitigation
Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Binutils: 2.7 - 2.39

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External links
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2185646
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=30285
https://sourceware.org/git/?p=binutils-gdb.git;a=blobdiff;f=bfd/elf.c;h=185028cbd97ae0901c4276c8a4787b12bb75875a;hp=027d01437352555bc4ac0717cb0486c751a7775d;hb=c22d38baefc5a7a1e1f5cdc9dbb556b1f0ec5c57;hpb=f2f9bde5cde7ff34ed0a4c4682a211d402aa1086

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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.