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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2020-16592 json

A use after free issue exists in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd) in GNU Binutils 2.34 in bfd_hash_lookup, as demonstr…

published 5y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2020-8553

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.1%
EPSS 1.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 64%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A use after free issue exists in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd) in GNU Binutils 2.34 in bfd_hash_lookup, as demonstrated in nm-new, that can cause a denial of service via a crafted file.

Patch / fix

  • binutils Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.35-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-16592

  • binutils Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2.30-21ubuntu1~18.04.7
  • binutils Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 2.34-6ubuntu1.3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-16592

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 for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15-LTSS +1 more 2.37-6.23.1
  • binutils SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP1-LTSS, SLES 15 SP1-BCL +9 more 2.37-7.21.2
  • bpftrace SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3 0.11.4-3.2.1
  • binutils SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +11 more 2.37-9.39.1
  • cross-ppc-binutils SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 2.37-9.39.1
  • cross-spu-binutils SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 2.37-9.39.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:0934-1SUSE-SU-2021:3616-1SUSE-SU-2021:3593-1

  • binutils openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.37-1.3
  • binutils openSUSE Leap 15.2 2.37-lp152.4.9.1
  • bpftrace openSUSE Leap 15.2 0.11.4-lp152.2.7.1
  • cross-rx-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.2 2.37-lp152.4.9.1
  • cross-arm-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.2 2.37-lp152.4.9.1
  • cross-avr-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.2 2.37-lp152.4.9.1
  • cross-ppc-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.2 2.37-lp152.4.9.1
  • cross-spu-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.2 2.37-lp152.4.9.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10651-1openSUSE-SU-2021:1475-1openSUSE-SU-2021:3616-1

Is CVE-2020-16592 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-2020-16592 updated cvss 5.5

binutils: use-after-free in bfd_hash_lookup could result in DoS

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 binutils, binutils220 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 binutils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 binutils
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 binutils, gcc-toolset-9-binutils, gcc-toolset-10-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

1.06% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 64% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • sourceware.org https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=25823 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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.