CVE-2019-14250

Description

This issue resides on libiberty code, a part of binutils, distributed with different versions of RH software. The vulnerability is triggered when the shstrndx (Section Header String Table Index) is zero in the ELF file. This specific condition leads to the integer overflow and subsequent buffer overflow.

Statement

This issue resides on libiberty code, libiberty is part of GNU project and contains several utilities being distributed by gcc and binutils packages. This flaws affects binutils versions as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7 and 8 and also gcc versions as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6 ,7 and 8. Versions of gcc shipped with Red Hat Developers Tool Set 7 and 8 are also affected.

Red Hat Product Security scored the impact of this bug to "Low" for the following reasons:

  1. This flaw requires the attacker to attacker to convince a local user to run a specially crafted ELF binary.
  2. The local user must have access to a vulnerable application that incorporates a vulnerable version of libiberty, a part of gnuutils.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert:Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score3.35.5N/A
Attack VectorLocalLocalN/A
Attack ComplexityLowLowN/A
Privileges RequiredNoneNoneN/A
User InteractionRequiredRequiredN/A
ScopeUnchangedUnchangedN/A
ConfidentialityNoneNoneN/A
Integrity ImpactNoneNoneN/A
Availability ImpactLowHighN/A

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Instability

This weakness can generally lead to undefined behavior and therefore crashes. When the calculated result is used for resource allocation, this weakness can cause too many (or too few) resources to be allocated, possibly enabling crashes if the product requests more resources than can be provided.

Integrity

Technical Impact: Modify Memory

If the value in question is important to data (as opposed to flow), simple data corruption has occurred. Also, if the overflow/wraparound results in other conditions such as buffer overflows, further memory corruption may occur.

Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control

Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Bypass Protection Mechanism

This weakness can sometimes trigger buffer overflows, which can be used to execute arbitrary code. This is usually outside the scope of the product's implicit security policy.

Availability,Other

Technical Impact: Alter Execution Logic; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU)

If the overflow/wraparound occurs in a loop index variable, this could cause the loop to terminate at the wrong time - too early, too late, or not at all (i.e., infinite loops). With too many iterations, some loops could consume too many resources such as memory, file handles, etc., possibly leading to a crash or other DoS.

Access Control

Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism

If integer values are used in security-critical decisions, such as calculating quotas or allocation limits, integer overflows can be used to cause an incorrect security decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

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