Executive brief
libdwarf is a library used by developers to parse and process DWARF debugging information in executable files. A vulnerability in how the library reads specific file sections allows a specially crafted file to crash applications using the library. This results in a denial-of-service condition, potentially disrupting development tools or software analysis workflows.
Technical details
An out-of-bounds read vulnerability exists in libdwarf version 20160613 within the _dwarf_read_loc_section function in dwarf_loc.c. The issue is triggered when the library processes a maliciously crafted DWARF file, leading to a heap-buffer over-read during a memcpy operation. An attacker can exploit this by providing a specially formatted file to a tool linked against libdwarf (such as dwarfdump), resulting in an application crash (denial of service). The vulnerability was identified using AddressSanitizer and requires user interaction to open the malicious file.
Affected products
- libdwarf project libdwarf 20160613
Timeline
- 2016-09-14: disclosed: Vulnerability reported to oss-security mailing list
- 2016-09-15: advisory: CVE-2016-7410 assigned by MITRE
- 2017-01-23: advisory: NVD publication date