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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2017-12459 json

The bfd_mach_o_read_symtab_strtab function in bfd/mach-o.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU…

published 2017-08-04 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-4031

cvss
7.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.9%
EPSS 1.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 79%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The bfd_mach_o_read_symtab_strtab function in bfd/mach-o.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29 and earlier, allows remote attackers to cause an out of bounds heap write and possibly achieve code execution via a crafted mach-o file.

Patch / fix

  • binutils Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.29-8

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-12459

  • binutils Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 2.26.1-1ubuntu1~16.04.8+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-12459

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2017-12459 updated cvss 7.0

binutils: out of bounds heap write in bfd_mach_o_read_symtab_strtab function

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 binutils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 binutils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 binutils
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.88% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 79% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.