# CVE-2020-35507: Null dereference in binutils

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in objdump by submitting a crafted file that triggers a NULL pointer dereference.

- **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:** 4 Jan 2021
- **Updated:** 8 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-35507, GHSA-87mc-cvfv-8r2w

## What is CVE-2020-35507?

CVE-2020-35507 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Gnu Binutils, published on 4 Jan 2021. 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

There's a flaw in bfd_pef_parse_function_stubs of bfd/pef.c in binutils in versions prior to 2.34 which could allow an attacker who is able to submit a crafted file to be processed by objdump to cause a NULL pointer dereference. The greatest threat of this flaw is to application availability.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-35507?

It affects 8 products.


Products: Broadcom Brocade Fabric Operating System, Gnu Binutils, Netapp Cloud Backup, Netapp Hci Compute Node Firmware, Netapp Ontap Select Deploy Administration Utility, Netapp Solidfire\, Enterprise Sds \& Hci Storage Node, Netapp Solidfire \& Hci Management Node, Redhat Enterprise Linux.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-35507?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-35507 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-35507 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Gnu Binutils

- [CVE-2023-31432](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-31432/): Privilege issues in multiple commands (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2023-31926](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-31926/): Arbitrary File Overwrite using less command (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2021-23133](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-23133/): Linux Kernel sctp_destroy_sock race condition (medium 6.7)
- [CVE-2023-31928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-31928/): XSS vulnerability in Brocade Webtools (medium 6.3)
- [CVE-2023-31428](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-31428/): CLI allows upload or transfer files of dangerous types (medium 5.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-35507 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-35507 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Gnu Binutils, published on 4 Jan 2021. 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-2020-35507 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-2020-35507/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-35507/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-35507
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-35507
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-35507

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-35507/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.