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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.5

CVE-2023-1972 json

A potential heap based buffer overflow was found in _bfd_elf_slurp_version_tables() in bfd/elf.c.

published 2023-05-17 3 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-24156

cvss
6.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.9%
EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 59%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A potential heap based buffer overflow was found in _bfd_elf_slurp_version_tables() in bfd/elf.c. This may lead to loss of availability.

Patch / fix

  • binutils Debian 14, Debian 13 2.41-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-1972

  • gdb Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 9.2-0ubuntu1~20.04.2
  • gdb Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 12.1-0ubuntu1~22.04.2
  • binutils Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 2.38-4ubuntu2.2
  • gdb Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 7.11.1-0ubuntu1~16.5+esm1
  • gdb Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 8.1.1-0ubuntu1+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-1972

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 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES for SAP 15 SP1 +18 more 2.41-150100.7.46.1
  • cross-rx-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.5 2.41-150100.7.46.1
  • cross-arm-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.5 2.41-150100.7.46.1
  • cross-avr-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.5 2.41-150100.7.46.1
  • cross-ppc-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.5 2.41-150100.7.46.1
  • cross-spu-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.5 2.41-150100.7.46.1
  • cross-hppa-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.5 2.41-150100.7.46.1
  • cross-i386-binutils openSUSE Leap 15.5 2.41-150100.7.46.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:3825-1SUSE-SU-2023:3695-1

  • binutils openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.41-1.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13411-1

  • binutils Alpine 3.18 2.40-r7
  • binutils Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +3 more 2.40-r10

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-1972

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 CBL-Mariner 2.0 2.37-10

azure linux advisories AZL-26754

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2023-1972 updated cvss 2.5

binutils: Illegal memory access when accessing a zer0-lengthverdef table

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 binutils
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 binutils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 binutils, gcc-toolset-11-binutils, gcc-toolset-12-binutils, gcc-toolset-12-binutils-gold Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 binutils, binutils-gold, gcc-toolset-12-binutils, gcc-toolset-12-binutils-gold
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) rhoai/odh-dashboard-rhel9
    under investigation

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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
21 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.90% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 59% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • n/a binutils

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer
  • CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write

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.