CVE-2025-11082
📋 TL;DR
A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in GNU Binutils' linker component allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service. This affects systems using Binutils 2.45 for compiling or linking programs. The vulnerability is in the ELF exception handling frame parser and requires local execution.
💻 Affected Systems
- GNU Binutils
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Local privilege escalation allowing attackers to gain root/system privileges and execute arbitrary code on the affected system.
Likely Case
Local denial of service (crash) of the linker process during compilation or linking operations.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact if proper access controls prevent untrusted users from executing binutils tools.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploit has been published according to CVE description. Requires local access and ability to trigger the vulnerable linker function with crafted input.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.46 (or apply patch ea1a0737c7692737a644af0486b71e4a392cbca8 to 2.45)
Vendor Advisory: https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=33464
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Upgrade to Binutils 2.46 when released. 2. Alternatively, apply patch ea1a0737c7692737a644af0486b71e4a392cbca8 to Binutils 2.45 source and rebuild. 3. Recompile any statically linked tools that use the vulnerable binutils libraries.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict linker execution
Linux/UnixLimit which users can execute binutils linker tools (ld, gold) to prevent untrusted users from exploiting the vulnerability.
chmod 750 /usr/bin/ld /usr/bin/ld.gold
setfacl -m u:trusteduser:rx /usr/bin/ld /usr/bin/ld.gold
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict access controls to prevent untrusted users from executing binutils tools
- Monitor for unusual linker process crashes or unexpected compilation/linking activities
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check binutils version: ld --version | grep 'GNU ld' and verify if version is 2.45Check Version:
ld --version | grep 'GNU ld'Verify Fix Applied:
After patching, verify the patch is applied by checking git commit history or version shows 2.46+📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Segmentation faults or abnormal termination of ld/gold linker processes
- Unexpected core dumps from binutils tools
Network Indicators:
- None - local exploitation only
SIEM Query:
Process:Name="ld" OR Process:Name="ld.gold" AND EventID="1000" OR EventID="1001" (for Windows crash events) OR search for 'segmentation fault' in syslog/auth.log for Linux🔗 References
- https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=16358
- https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=33464
- https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=33464#c2
- https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=ea1a0737c7692737a644af0486b71e4a392cbca8
- https://vuldb.com/?ctiid.326123
- https://vuldb.com/?id.326123
- https://vuldb.com/?submit.661276
- https://www.gnu.org/
