CVE-2025-69651 Null dereference in n/a
A crafted ELF binary causes readelf to crash via an invalid pointer free, resulting in denial of service for developers using the tool.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-69651?
CVE-2025-69651 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Gnu Binutils, published on 6 Mar 2026. 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 Binutils thru 2.46 readelf contains a vulnerability that leads to an invalid pointer free when processing a crafted ELF binary with malformed relocation or symbol data. If dump_relocations returns early due to parsing errors, the internal all_relocations array may remain partially uninitialized. Later, process_got_section_contents() may attempt to free an invalid r_symbol pointer, triggering memory corruption checks in glibc and causing the program to terminate with SIGABRT. No evidence of further memory corruption or code execution was observed; the impact is limited to denial of service. NOTE: this is disputed by third parties because the observed behavior occurred only in pre-release code and did not affect any tagged version.
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-69651?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Gnu Binutils.
How do I fix CVE-2025-69651?
No fix published yet.
Is CVE-2025-69651 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-69651 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in Gnu Binutils
Sources
Also known as AZL-79574, AZL-79580, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-69651, ECHO-30c0-a594-f90e, GHSA-v4pr-w75g-wfrf, MINI-8444-x9p7-f644 and 1 more.