Is CVE-2026-18220 exploited in the wild?

No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-18220 being exploited in the wild.

How severe is CVE-2026-18220?

High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.8, published 29 July 2026.

Which products and versions are affected?

Gnu Binutils All versions built with DLX backend enabled.

Is there a fix for CVE-2026-18220?

No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

How is CVE-2026-18220 attacked?

It is attacked with local access, in a software library.

Am I affected by CVE-2026-18220?

Check whether you run Gnu Binutils at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

CVE-2026-18220: GNU binutils out-of-bounds write in BFD DLX ELF backend

CVE-2026-18220 · Severity: high · CVSS 7.8 · Published 2026-07-29

A vulnerability exists in GNU binutils, a collection of programming tools used to create and manage binary files. By tricking a user or automated system into processing a specially crafted file, an attacker could gain full control over the system. This poses a significant risk to developer workstations, automated security scanners, and software build pipelines that handle untrusted code.

Technologies: Gnu Binutils. Vendors: Gnu.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2026-18220 exploited in the wild?: No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-18220 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2026-18220?: High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.8, published 29 July 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?: Gnu Binutils All versions built with DLX backend enabled.
Is there a fix for CVE-2026-18220?: No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.
How is CVE-2026-18220 attacked?: It is attacked with local access, in a software library.
Am I affected by CVE-2026-18220?: Check whether you run Gnu Binutils at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

Technical details

An out-of-bounds write vulnerability exists in the dlx_rtype_to_howto() function within bfd/elf32-dlx.c of the BFD library in GNU binutils. The flaw stems from inadequate bounds checking on attacker-controlled relocation type values (ELF32_R_TYPE) before they are used to index the dlx_elf_howto_table[] array. Because the DLX relocation type space is non-contiguous, the default switch case allows arbitrary indices to reach the array access. An attacker can exploit this via a specially crafted ELF/DLX object file to perform a File Stream Oriented Programming (FSOP) attack against glibc FILE structures, leading to arbitrary code execution. This is exploitable when binutils is compiled with the DLX backend enabled (e.g., --enable-targets=all).

Affected products

GNU binutils All versions built with DLX backend enabled
Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Affected (binutils package)

Timeline

2026-07-27: disclosed: Reported via Red Hat Bugzilla
2026-07-29: advisory: Published by NVD and Red Hat

References

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