CVE-2025-69651
low-risk
Published 2026-03-06
GNU Binutils thru 2.46 readelf contains a vulnerability that leads to an invalid pointer free when processing a crafted ELF binary with malformed relocation or symbol data. If dump_relocations returns early due to parsing errors, the internal all_relocations array may remain partially uninitialized. Later, process_got_section_contents() may attempt to free an invalid r_symbol pointer, triggering memory corruption checks in glibc and causing the program to terminate with SIGABRT. No evidence of further memory corruption or code execution was observed; the impact is limited to denial of service. NOTE: this is disputed by third parties because the observed behavior occurred only in pre-release code and did not affect any tagged version.
Do I need to act?
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0.01% chance of exploitation
EPSS score — low exploit probability
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Not on CISA KEV list
No confirmed active exploitation reported to CISA
?
Patch status unknown
Check vendor advisories for fix availability and mitigation guidance
5
CVSS 5.5/10
Medium
LOCAL
/ LOW complexity
Affected Products (1)
Affected Vendors
References (5)
23
/ 100
low-risk
Severity
18/34 · Moderate
Exploitability
0/34 · Minimal
Exposure
5/34 · Minimal