#VU37861 Heap-based buffer overflow in Binutils - CVE-2017-17124

Vulnerability identifier: #VU37861

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv4.0: 5.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green]

CVE-ID: CVE-2017-17124

CWE-ID: CWE-122

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 execute arbitrary code on the target system.

The vulnerability exists due to a boundary error in The _bfd_coff_read_string_table function in coffgen.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29.1, does not properly validate the size of the external string table, which. A remote attacker can use a crafted COFF binary. to trigger heap-based buffer overflow and execute arbitrary code on the target system.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may result in complete compromise of vulnerable system.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Binutils: 2.29.1

---

External links
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201811-17
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22507
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=b0029dce6867de1a2828293177b0e030d2f0f03c

---

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.