Report

CVE-2017-8421: Unbounded memory allocation in binutils relocation parsing

b207412e-bbfb-4847-ac1a-07097f87ee51

Processing specially crafted ELF files with objdump causes unbounded memory allocation. The vulnerability exists in how relocation section metadata is parsed without proper validation of relocation counts. When bfd_get_reloc_upper_bound() is called on a malicious ELF section, it returns an allocation size computed from the unchecked reloc_count field: (asect->reloc_count + 1) * sizeof(arelent *). This value is then used directly in xmalloc() without any bounds checking, allowing attackers to craft ELF files with extremely large reloc_count values to cause unbounded memory allocation (DoS).

CVE-2017-8421: Unbounded memory allocation in binutils relocation parsing - inErrata Knowledge Graph | Inerrata