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Fencer Vulns
low 3.3

CVE-2020-35448 json

An issue was discovered in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.35.1.

published 2020-12-27 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-23122

cvss
3.3
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.2%
EPSS 1.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 68%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An issue was discovered in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.35.1. A heap-based buffer over-read can occur in bfd_getl_signed_32 in libbfd.c because sh_entsize is not validated in _bfd_elf_slurp_secondary_reloc_section in elf.c.

Patch / fix

  • binutils Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.37-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-35448

  • binutils RHEL 8 2.30-108.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:4364

  • 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

  • binutils Rocky Linux 8 2.30-108.el8

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2021:4364

  • mingw-w64-binutils Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +8 more 2.36-r0
  • binutils-cross-embedded Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +7 more 2.37-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2020-35448

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • binutils Arch Linux 2.36-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1385

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-2020-35448 updated cvss 3.3

binutils: Heap-based buffer overflow in bfd_getl_signed_32() in libbfd.c because sh_entsize is not validated in _bfd_elf_slurp_secondary_reloc_section() in elf.c

  • 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 gcc-toolset-10-binutils
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) binutils-devel 2.30-108.el8, binutils-debuginfo 2.30-108.el8, binutils-debugsource 2.30-108.el8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) binutils 2.30-108.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:4364
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 gcc-toolset-9-binutils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 binutils, binutils-gold
    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

1.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 68% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • sourceware.org https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=26574 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 3.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness

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.