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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2017-8396 json

The Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.28, is vulnerable to an invalid read of size 1 beca…

published 2017-05-01 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-17348

cvss
7.5
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 79%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.28, is vulnerable to an invalid read of size 1 because the existing reloc offset range tests didn't catch small negative offsets less than the size of the reloc field. This vulnerability causes programs that conduct an analysis of binary programs using the libbfd library, such as objdump, to crash.

Patch / fix

  • binutils Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.28-5

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-8396

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

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-8396

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 SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1 +7 more 2.29.1-9.20.2
  • cross-ppc-binutils SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP3, SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP2 2.29.1-9.20.2
  • cross-spu-binutils SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP3, SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP2 2.29.1-9.20.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:3207-2SUSE-SU-2018:3207-1SUSE-SU-2017:3170-1

  • binutils openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.37-1.3

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10651-1

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-2017-8396 updated cvss 3.3

binutils: Out-of-bounds read in the existing reloc offset range tests

  • 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

1.84% 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 7.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

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.