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Vulnerability record · CVE-2018-18606 · published 23 October 2018

CVE-2018-18606: Gnu binutils null pointer dereference vulnerability

Gnu · Binutils

An issue was discovered in the merge_strings function in merge.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.31. There is a NULL pointer dereference in _bfd_add_merge_section when attempting to merge sections with large alignments. A specially crafted ELF allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service, as demonstrated by ld.

5.5 CVSS 3.0 Medium EPSS 2.3% · top 17.1% CWE-476 · NULL pointer dereference
5.5CVSS 3.0 base score, v2 4.3
2.3%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
3Affected product versions listed by NVD
14References, 2 tagged exploit
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

An issue was discovered in the merge_strings function in merge.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.31. There is a NULL pointer dereference in _bfd_add_merge_section when attempting to merge sections with large alignments. A specially crafted ELF allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service, as demonstrated by ld.

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

3 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-10/msg00072.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-11/msg00008.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/105754 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190307-0003/ Third Party Advisory
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23806 ExploitIssue TrackingThird Party Advisory
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git%3Bh=45a0eaf77022963d639d6d19871dbab7b79703fc
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4336-1/
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-10/msg00072.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-11/msg00008.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/105754 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190307-0003/ Third Party Advisory
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23806 ExploitIssue TrackingThird Party Advisory
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git%3Bh=45a0eaf77022963d639d6d19871dbab7b79703fc
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4336-1/

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2018-18606), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-10-02). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.