CVE-2023-1972 Memory corruption in binutils

Medium 6.5 Published 17 May 2023 Updated 22 Jan 2025

A heap-based buffer overflow in binutils can cause a denial of service when processing malicious ELF files.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: A user has to click or open something
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2023-1972?

CVE-2023-1972 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Gnu Binutils, published on 17 May 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

A potential heap based buffer overflow was found in _bfd_elf_slurp_version_tables() in bfd/elf.c. This may lead to loss of availability.

Weakness: CWE-787, CWE-119

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-1972?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Gnu Binutils.

How do I fix CVE-2023-1972?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2023-1972 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-1972 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Gnu Binutils vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2023-1972, AZL-26754, BELL-CVE-2023-1972, CLEANSTART-2025-PC19077, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-1972, ECHO-9454-efce-116b and 3 more.