CVE-2026-6844 Binutils: binutils: denial of service vulnerabilities in readelf via crafted elf files
A local attacker can cause a denial of service in the readelf utility via crafted ELF files, leading to crashes or resource exhaustion.
- 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-2026-6844?
CVE-2026-6844 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Binutils, published on 22 Apr 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
A flaw was found in the `readelf` utility of the binutils package. A local attacker could exploit two Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerabilities by providing a specially crafted Executable and Linkable Format (ELF) file. One vulnerability, a resource exhaustion (CWE-400), can lead to an out-of-memory condition. The other, a null pointer dereference (CWE-476), can cause a segmentation fault. Both issues can result in the `readelf` utility becoming unresponsive or crashing, leading to a denial of service.
Weakness: CWE-400
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-6844?
It affects 4 products.
Products include Gnu Binutils, Redhat Enterprise Linux, Redhat Hardened Images, Redhat Openshift Container Platform.
How do I fix CVE-2026-6844?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-6844 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-6844 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Gnu Binutils
Sources
Also known as CLSA-2026-1790167629, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-6844, ECHO-8b0a-b11c-14d1, GHSA-p33j-xffm-gxj7, MINI-jc9v-mp77-359h, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-6844.