Moderate: binutils security, bug fix, and enhancement update

Synopsis

Moderate: binutils security, bug fix, and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Moderate

Topic

Updated binutils packages that fix multiple security issues, several bugs,
and add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 7.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Moderate security
impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give
detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the
CVE links in the References section.

Description

The binutils packages provide a set of binary utilities.

Multiple buffer overflow flaws were found in the libbdf library used by
various binutils utilities. If a user were tricked into processing a
specially crafted file with an application using the libbdf library, it
could cause the application to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary
code. (CVE-2014-8485, CVE-2014-8501, CVE-2014-8502, CVE-2014-8503,
CVE-2014-8504, CVE-2014-8738)

An integer overflow flaw was found in the libbdf library used by various
binutils utilities. If a user were tricked into processing a specially
crafted file with an application using the libbdf library, it could cause
the application to crash. (CVE-2014-8484)

A directory traversal flaw was found in the strip and objcopy utilities.
A specially crafted file could cause strip or objdump to overwrite an
arbitrary file writable by the user running either of these utilities.
(CVE-2014-8737)

This update fixes the following bugs:

  • Binary files started by the system loader could lack the Relocation
    Read-Only (RELRO) protection even though it was explicitly requested when
    the application was built. This bug has been fixed on multiple
    architectures. Applications and all dependent object files, archives, and
    libraries built with an alpha or beta version of binutils should be rebuilt
    to correct this defect. (BZ#1200138, BZ#1175624)
  • The ld linker on 64-bit PowerPC now correctly checks the output format
    when asked to produce a binary in another format than PowerPC. (BZ#1226864)
  • An important variable that holds the symbol table for the binary being
    debugged has been made persistent, and the objdump utility on 64-bit
    PowerPC is now able to access the needed information without reading an
    invalid memory region. (BZ#1172766)
  • Undesirable runtime relocations described in RHBA-2015:0974. (BZ#872148)

The update adds these enhancements:

  • New hardware instructions of the IBM z Systems z13 are now supported by
    assembler, disassembler, and linker, as well as Single Instruction,
    Multiple Data (SIMD) instructions. (BZ#1182153)
  • Expressions of the form: "FUNC@localentry" to refer to the local entry
    point for the FUNC function (if defined) are now supported by the PowerPC
    assembler. These are required by the ELFv2 ABI on the little-endian variant
    of IBM Power Systems. (BZ#1194164)

All binutils users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain backported patches to correct these issues and add these
enhancements.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

Affected Products

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 7.5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 7.4 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 7.3 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.4 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.3 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 7 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 7 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 7 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.6 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.5 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.4 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.3 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 7 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 7 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 7 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.4 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.3 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian 7 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.2 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.3 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (for IBM Power LE) - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (for IBM Power LE) - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (for IBM Power LE) - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 x86_64

Fixes

  • BZ - 1156272 - CVE-2014-8484 binutils: invalid read flaw in libbfd
  • BZ - 1157276 - CVE-2014-8485 binutils: lack of range checking leading to controlled write in _bfd_elf_setup_sections()
  • BZ - 1162570 - CVE-2014-8501 binutils: out-of-bounds write when parsing specially crafted PE executable
  • BZ - 1162594 - CVE-2014-8502 binutils: heap overflow in objdump when parsing a crafted ELF/PE binary file (incomplete fix for CVE-2014-8485)
  • BZ - 1162607 - CVE-2014-8503 binutils: stack overflow in objdump when parsing specially crafted ihex file
  • BZ - 1162621 - CVE-2014-8504 binutils: stack overflow in the SREC parser
  • BZ - 1162655 - CVE-2014-8737 binutils: directory traversal vulnerability
  • BZ - 1162666 - CVE-2014-8738 binutils: out of bounds memory write
  • BZ - 1172766 - ppc64: segv in libbfd
  • BZ - 1200138 - binutils: ld sporadically generates binaries without relro protection even when told so
  • BZ - 1203603 - The binutils package contains the windmc(1) manual page but the utility is not included
  • BZ - 1238783 - [aarch64][binutils] relocation truncated to fit: R_AARCH64_LD64_GOT_LO12_NC against

CVEs

References