# CVE-2017-9778: Denial of service in n/a

> A malformed DWARF section in an ELF binary or core file causes GDB to exhaust memory, leading to a denial of service during analysis.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 21 Jun 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2017-9778, GHSA-hmmq-v5m7-8j9w, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-9778

## What is CVE-2017-9778?

CVE-2017-9778 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 21 Jun 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

GNU Debugger (GDB) 8.0 and earlier fails to detect a negative length field in a DWARF section. A malformed section in an ELF binary or a core file can cause GDB to repeatedly allocate memory until a process limit is reached. This can, for example, impede efforts to analyze malware with GDB.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling), CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-9778?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Gnu Gdb.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-9778?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2017-9778 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-9778 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2019-1010180](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1010180/): Memory corruption in gdb (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2005-1705](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-1705/): Code injection in n/a (high 7.2)
- [CVE-2011-4355](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-4355/): Privilege escalation in n/a (medium 6.9)
- [CVE-2023-39128](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-39128/): Memory corruption in n/a (medium 5.5)
- [CVE-2023-39129](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-39129/): Use after free in n/a (medium 5.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-9778 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-9778 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 21 Jun 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-9778 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9778/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9778/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-9778
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-9778
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-9778

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9778/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.