# CVE-2020-16591: Denial of service in n/a

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in GNU Binutils via an invalid read in the BFD library when processing symbol tables.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/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:** 9 Dec 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-16591, GHSA-grmj-8wvf-p5xh

## What is CVE-2020-16591?

CVE-2020-16591 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Binutils, published on 9 Dec 2020. 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

A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) in GNU Binutils 2.35 due to an invalid read in process_symbol_table, as demonstrated in readeif.

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-16591?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Gnu Binutils, Netapp Ontap Select Deploy Administration Utility.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-16591?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-16591 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-16591 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-2020-16591 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-16591 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Binutils, published on 9 Dec 2020. 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-2020-16591 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-2020-16591/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-16591/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-16591
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-16591
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-16591

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-16591/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.