An issue was discovered in the merge_strings function in merge.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.31. There is a NULL pointer dereference in _bfd_add_merge_section when attempting to merge sections with large alignments. A specially crafted ELF allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service, as demonstrated by ld.
The MITRE CVE dictionary describes this issue as:
Find out more about CVE-2018-18606 from the MITRE CVE dictionary dictionary and NIST NVD.
NOTE: The following CVSS v3 metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
| CVSS3 Base Score | 3.3 |
|---|---|
| CVSS3 Base Metrics | CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| Attack Vector | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low |
| Privileges Required | None |
| User Interaction | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None |
| Integrity Impact | None |
| Availability Impact | Low |
| Platform | Package | State |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | binutils | Will not fix |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | binutils | Will not fix |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | binutils220 | Will not fix |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | binutils | Will not fix |
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