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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2017-16831 json

coffgen.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29.1, does not validate the symbol cou…

published 8y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2017-8006

cvss
7.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.8%
EPSS 1.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 78%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

coffgen.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29.1, does not validate the symbol count, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (integer overflow and application crash, or excessive memory allocation) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted PE file.

Patch / fix

  • binutils Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.29.90.20180122-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-16831

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

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-16831

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

  • binutils SLES 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP2-BCL, SLED 12 SP3 +9 more 2.31-9.26.1
  • cross-ppc-binutils SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP3 2.31-9.26.1
  • cross-spu-binutils SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP3 2.31-9.26.1
  • binutils SLE Module for Development Tools 15, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 2.31-6.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:3207-2SUSE-SU-2018:3207-1SUSE-SU-2018:3170-1

  • binutils openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.37-1.3

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10651-1

Is CVE-2017-16831 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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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-2017-16831 updated cvss 3.3

binutils: Integer overflow in coffgen.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 binutils, binutils220 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 binutils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 binutils
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”

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

1.78% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 78% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • sourceware.org https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22385 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

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
  • CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound

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.