Executive brief
A vulnerability in the GNU binutils 'readelf' utility can allow an attacker to crash the program or make a system unresponsive. By tricking a user into opening a specially crafted file, an attacker can cause the system to run out of memory or trigger a software failure. This tool is commonly used by developers and system administrators to analyze executable files.
Technical details
This vulnerability in GNU binutils (specifically the readelf utility) encompasses two distinct Denial of Service vectors: a resource exhaustion flaw and a NULL pointer dereference (CWE-476). The resource exhaustion occurs when a small, malformed ELF file triggers an excessive memory allocation (up to several terabytes), leading to an Out-Of-Memory (OOM) kill. The NULL pointer dereference is triggered by malformed section header entry sizes or offsets, resulting in a SIGSEGV crash. Exploitation requires a local attacker to trick a user into processing the malicious ELF file with readelf. The issues were identified via AFL++ fuzzing in version 2.46.
Affected products
- GNU binutils 2.46
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.0
Timeline
- 2026-04-21: other: Vulnerability reported to Red Hat Bugzilla
- 2026-04-22: advisory: Initial NVD publication date
- 2026-05-20: other: NVD analysis and CPE information added