Description

A security vulnerability has been detected in GNU Binutils 2.47. Affected is the function elf_x86_64_common_section_index of the file bfd/elf64-x86-64.c of the component ELF Section Handler. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. The attack needs to be performed locally. The exploit has been disclosed publicly and may be used. Upgrading to version 2.48 is able to address this issue. The identifier of the patch is 7322e9bc30cb282575a701c307851fd3d66fee68. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "3.3",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-15T09:16:45.153Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-15T09:16:45.153Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A null pointer dereference vulnerability has been identified within the ELF Section Handler of GNU Binutils version 2.47.\nThe flaw resides specifically in the elf_x86_64_common_section_index function located in bfd/elf64-x86-64.c.\nThis vulnerability is classified as a local attack vector, requiring the adversary to execute the malicious operation on the target system.\nSuccessful exploitation allows an attacker to trigger a null pointer dereference, which typically results in an application crash (Denial of Service).\nGiven that the exploit has been disclosed publicly, the risk of exploitation is elevated for systems processing untrusted ELF binaries.\nThe vulnerability is resolved in version 2.48, and the application of patch 7322e9bc30cb282575a701c307851fd3d66fee68 is recommended to restore system integrity.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is located in the ELF binary handling logic of the BFD (Binary File Descriptor) library, specifically within the architecture-specific backend for x86-64 targets.\nThe root cause is an improper validation of internal object states within the elf_x86_64_common_section_index function. During the processing of ELF headers and section structures, the function fails to adequately verify the validity of internal pointers before accessing them.\nWhen a malformed ELF file is provided to Binutils, the parser may reach an execution path where a pointer, expected to reference a valid section structure, is null. Because the code does not perform a check for nullity before dereferencing this pointer to retrieve a section index, a segmentation fault occurs immediately upon access.\nThe attack flow requires the attacker to provide a specially crafted ELF binary file to a utility linked against the vulnerable version of GNU Binutils (e.g., objdump, readelf, or ld). When the tool attempts to analyze or process the section indices of the malicious file, the function triggers the null pointer dereference.\nFrom an exploitation perspective, this is primarily a Denial of Service (DoS) primitive. By inducing a crash in the utility processing the file, an attacker can disrupt services or build processes that rely on Binutils. While null pointer dereferences can sometimes be leveraged for code execution depending on memory mapping and security features like SMEP/SMAP, the primary impact in this context is application instability.\nThis vulnerability is restricted to local execution, as the attacker must be capable of invoking the vulnerable component with a malicious input file. There is no remote network exposure unless the utility is exposed via a network-facing service that parses uploaded binary files. The vulnerability does not require authentication to trigger; however, it requires the underlying binary utility to have sufficient permissions to access the crafted input file.\nThe patch identified by 7322e9bc30cb282575a701c307851fd3d66fee68 implements the necessary boundary checks and pointer validation within bfd/elf64-x86-64.c to ensure that the function handles unexpected or missing section data gracefully without dereferencing a null base address."
}