CVE-2015-8538
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · unediteddwarf_leb.c in libdwarf allows attackers to cause a denial of service (SIGSEGV).
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceA denial-of-service vulnerability exists in libdwarf's dwarf_leb.c file where processing of maliciously crafted DWARF debugging information can trigger a segmentation fault (SIGSEGV). The vulnerability is in the LEB (Little Endian Base) decoding routine used for parsing compressed integer values in debugging data.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data>= 1999-12-14, <= 2015-11-14CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if libdwarf is installedRun 'dpkg -l libdwarf' on Debian-based systems, 'rpm -qa | grep -i dwarf' on RHEL-based systems, or check for libdwarf shared libraries in /usr/lib or /usr/local/lib. Also check if any installed software links against libdwarf using 'ldd' or 'ldconfig -p | grep dwarf'Affected if libdwarf library is present on the system
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Determine the installed libdwarf versionRun 'dwarfdump -V' or 'dwarfdump --version' if available, check package manager output from step 1, or examine the libdwarf SO file version in /usr/lib (for example, libdwarf.so.20150925 indicates version 20150925)Affected if The version string or build date falls within the range 1999-12-14 to 2015-11-14 (inclusive)
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Identify applications using libdwarf for DWARF processingUse 'ldd /path/to/binary' on key binaries (compilers, debuggers, binutils tools like objdump/readelf, crash dump analyzers) to see if they link against libdwarf. Also check for custom or in-house tools that parse DWARF debugging dataAffected if Any tool that parses DWARF debugging information is linked against or uses libdwarf from the affected version range
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Verify if untrusted DWARF data is processedReview system or application logs for processing of DWARF files from untrusted sources such as binaries from third parties, user-uploaded files, or core dumps from external systems. Check if debuggers, crash reporters, or binary analysis tools process debugging info from unknown originsAffected if The system or any libdwarf-consuming tool processes DWARF debugging information from untrusted or potentially malicious sources
The system is likely affected if libdwarf version is between 1999-12-14 and 2015-11-14 AND applications linked against libdwarf process DWARF debugging data, especially from untrusted sources.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate libdwarf to the patched version that addresses this vulnerability. Ensure that any tools consuming DWARF data properly validate and handle malformed debugging information before passing it to libdwarf functions.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-8538 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-8538 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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