USN-2496-1

Michal Zalewski discovered that the setup_group function in libbfd in GNU binutils did not properly check group headers in ELF files. An attacker could use this to craft input that could cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2014-8485)

Hanno Böck discovered that the bfdXXiswapaouthdr_in function in libbfd in GNU binutils allowed out-of-bounds writes. An attacker could use this to craft input that could cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2014-8501)

Hanno Böck discovered a heap-based buffer overflow in the peprintedata function in libbfd in GNU binutils. An attacker could use this to craft input that could cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2014-8502)

Alexander Cherepanov discovered multiple directory traversal vulnerabilities in GNU binutils. An attacker could use this to craft input that could delete arbitrary files. (CVE-2014-8737)

Alexander Cherepanov discovered the bfdslurpextendedname_table function in libbfd in GNU binutils allowed invalid writes when handling extended name tables in an archive. An attacker could use this to craft input that could cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2014-8738)

Hanno Böck discovered a stack-based buffer overflow in the ihex_scan function in libbfd in GNU binutils. An attacker could use this to craft input that could cause a denial of service (application crash). (CVE-2014-8503)

Michal Zalewski discovered a stack-based buffer overflow in the srec_scan function in libbfd in GNU binutils. An attacker could use this to to craft input that could cause a denial of service (application crash); the GNU C library's Fortify Source printf protection should prevent the possibility of executing arbitrary code. (CVE-2014-8504)

Michal Zalewski discovered that the srec_scan function in libbfd in GNU binutils allowed out-of-bounds reads. An attacker could use this to craft input to cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. (CVE-2014-8484)

Sang Kil Cha discovered multiple integer overflows in the objallocalloc function and objalloc_alloc macro in binutils. This could allow an attacker to cause a denial of service (application crash). This issue only affected Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. (CVE-2012-3509)

Alexander Cherepanov and Hanno Böck discovered multiple additional out-of-bounds reads and writes in GNU binutils. An attacker could use these to craft input that could cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. A few of these issues may be limited in exposure to a denial of service (application abort) by the GNU C library's Fortify Source printf protection.

The strings(1) utility in GNU binutils used libbfd by default when examining executable object files; unfortunately, libbfd was not originally developed with the expectation of hostile input. As a defensive measure, the behavior of strings has been changed to default to 'strings --all' behavior, which does not use libbfd; use the new argument to strings, '--data', to recreate the old behavior.