CVE-2016-4487
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 · uneditedUse-after-free vulnerability in libiberty allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault and crash) via a crafted binary, related to "btypevec."
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 confidenceUse-after-free vulnerability in libiberty allows remote attackers to cause denial of service (segmentation fault and crash) via a crafted binary. The vulnerability is triggered during processing of 'btypevec' data structures.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/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 libiberty is present in the environmentSearch for libiberty shared library files (libiberty.a, libiberty.so) or check if binutils tools that depend on libiberty are installed (objdump, nm, readelf, c++filt)Affected if libiberty or its dependent binutils tools are found on the system
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Determine how libiberty is being usedIdentify applications or tools that link against libiberty by running 'ldd' on binutils executables or checking compilation dependenciesAffected if binutils tools or other custom applications that use libiberty are present and process binary files
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Check if processing of untrusted or crafted binaries is occurringReview usage patterns: are users or automated tools processing binary files from untrusted sources using objdump, nm, or readelfAffected if binutils tools are being used to inspect, disassemble, or analyze binary files from untrusted or external sources
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Monitor for crashes related to libiberty processingReview system logs, crash dumps, and application logs for segmentation faults or use-after-free errors occurring during binary file processingAffected if crashes, segmentation faults, or abnormal program terminations occur while processing binary files with binutils tools
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Verify if the btypevec parsing code path is reachableDetermine if the installed libiberty version includes the demangling code that processes btypevec structures (typically used in C++ name demangling)Affected if C++ binaries are being processed and demangled using libiberty-based tools
If libiberty is present and is used to process binary files from untrusted sources, particularly C++ binaries requiring demangling, the environment is potentially affected by this use-after-free vulnerability.
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 libiberty (typically distributed with binutils) to a patched version. If updates are unavailable, restrict processing of untrusted binaries and monitor for crashes.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-4487 — 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-2016-4487 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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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