BinutilsApplication · Gnu

CVE-2025-11494

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-10-08
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Public exploit Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
A vulnerability was found in GNU Binutils 2.45. Impacted is the function _bfd_x86_elf_late_size_sections of the file bfd/elfxx-x86.c of the component Linker. The manipulation results in out-of-bounds read. The attack needs to be approached locally. The exploit has been made public and could be used. The patch is identified as b6ac5a8a5b82f0ae6a4642c8d7149b325f4cc60a. A patch should be applied to remediate this issue.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-119

The program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.

General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
BinutilsApplication
Affected:= 2.45

CVSS 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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch sourceware.org →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Binutils version containing commit b6ac5a8a5b82f0ae6a4642c8d7149b325f4cc60a (typically a 2.46 or later release)

  1. 1. Identify the current Binutils version on the system using: binutils --version or as --version
  2. 2. Obtain the fixed Binutils source code. The fix is available in commit b6ac5a8a5b82f0ae6a4642c8d7149b325f4cc60a
  3. 3. Clone the Binutils source repository: git clone https://sourceware.org/git/binutils-gdb.git
  4. 4. Checkout the specific fix commit: git checkout b6ac5a8a5b82f0ae6a4642c8d7149b325f4cc60a
  5. 5. Configure and build Binutils from the fixed commit following standard build procedures
  6. 6. Alternatively, check if your Linux distribution has released a package update for Binutils that includes this fix and apply it via your package manager
  7. 7. Verify the fix is applied by checking the _bfd_x86_elf_late_size_sections function in bfd/elfxx-x86.c for the bounds checking additions
Caveat Standard Binutils upgrade risks apply - ensure compatibility with dependent toolchains and build systems before deploying to production

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-11494 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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