# CVE-2018-6759: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a denial of service via segmentation fault by providing a crafted ELF file to the BFD library.

- **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:** 6 Feb 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2018-6759, DEBIAN-CVE-2018-6759, GHSA-h3f9-f778-x29x, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-6759

## What is CVE-2018-6759?

CVE-2018-6759 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Binutils, published on 6 Feb 2018. 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

The bfd_get_debug_link_info_1 function in opncls.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.30, has an unchecked strnlen operation. Remote attackers could leverage this vulnerability to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault) via a crafted ELF file.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-6759?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Gnu Binutils.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-6759?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-6759 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6759 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Gnu Binutils

- [CVE-2017-7614](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7614/): Null dereference in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2014-9939](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-9939/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-7226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7226/): Information disclosure in n/a (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2017-6969](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6969/): Information disclosure in n/a (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2020-19726](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-19726/): Denial of service in n/a (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-6759 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-6759 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Binutils, published on 6 Feb 2018. 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-2018-6759 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Gnu Binutils. 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-2018-6759/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6759/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-6759
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-6759
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-6759

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6759/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.