#VU92166 Use of uninitialized resource in Binutils - CVE-2023-25588

Vulnerability identifier: #VU92166

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 1.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-25588

CWE-ID: CWE-908

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Binutils
Universal components / Libraries / Libraries used by multiple products

Vendor: GNU

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to perform a denial of service attack.

The vulnerability exists due to field `the_bfd` of `asymbol`struct is uninitialized in the `bfd_mach_o_get_synthetic_symtab` function. A local user can trick the victim into opening specially crafted data, leading to an application crash and local denial of service.

Mitigation
Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Binutils: 2.40

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External links
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2167505
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=d12f8998d2d086f0a6606589e5aedb7147e6f2f1
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-25588
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=29677
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20231103-0003/

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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.