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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2017-6965 json

readelf in GNU Binutils 2.28 writes to illegal addresses while processing corrupt input files containing symbol-difference relocations, lea…

published 2017-03-17 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-16003

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.2%
EPSS 1.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 67%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

readelf in GNU Binutils 2.28 writes to illegal addresses while processing corrupt input files containing symbol-difference relocations, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow.

Patch / fix

  • binutils Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.28-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-6965

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

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-6965

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

  • binutils Arch Linux 2.29.0-1

arch linux advisories AVG-276

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-2017-6965 updated cvss 7.0

binutils: Heap-based buffer overflow in target_specific_reloc_handling in readelf

  • 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

1.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 67% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • sourceware.org https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=21137 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 5.5 CVSS:3.0/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
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns 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.