CVE-2025-69649
Description
A flaw was found in binutils. Processing a specially crafted ELF binary file containing malformed header fields with the readelf program can trigger a NULL pointer dereference, causing a crash and resulting in a denial of service.
Statement
This issue is classified with a low severity primarily because binutils is not typically exposed to untrusted inputs in most environments, limiting the possibility of exploitation. Additionally, this NULL pointer dereference is only triggered during the parsing of a specially crafted file, requiring an attacker to convince a user to process this file with readelf. Furthermore, binutils does not handle privileged operations, meaning that exploitation is unlikely to lead to system compromise or escalation of privileges. Also, the impact is limited to the application itself, without affecting the broader system or network security.
Mitigation
To mitigate this vulnerability, do not process untrusted, unverified or externally supplied ELF binaries with the readelf program.
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).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 3.3 | 7.5 | 5.5 |
| Attack Vector | Local | Network | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | None | None |
| User Interaction | Required | None | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | None | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | None |
| Availability Impact | Low | High | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Red Hat CVSS v3 Score Explanation
An attacker needs to convince a local user into running readelf with a specially crafted file. To reflect this condition, the attack vector metric is set to local and the user interaction metric is set to required. Furthermore, an attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service, as the crash will only occur when a specially crafted file is processed, legitimate files can be processed normally. To reflect this condition, the availability metric is set to low.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
NULL pointer dereferences usually result in the failure of the process unless exception handling (on some platforms) is available and implemented. Even when exception handling is being used, it can still be very difficult to return the software to a safe state of operation.
Integrity,Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Read Memory; Modify Memory
In rare circumstances, when NULL is equivalent to the 0x0 memory address and privileged code can access it, then writing or reading memory is possible, which may lead to code execution.
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