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BinutilsApplication · Gnu

CVE-2025-69651

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.46 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Public exploit No privileges 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
GNU Binutils thru 2.46 readelf contains a vulnerability that leads to an invalid pointer free when processing a crafted ELF binary with malformed relocation or symbol data. If dump_relocations returns early due to parsing errors, the internal all_relocations array may remain partially uninitialized. Later, process_got_section_contents() may attempt to free an invalid r_symbol pointer, triggering memory corruption checks in glibc and causing the program to terminate with SIGABRT. No evidence of further memory corruption or code execution was observed; the impact is limited to denial of service. NOTE: this is disputed by third parties because the observed behavior occurred only in pre-release code and did not affect any tagged version.

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-476

The code follows a pointer that is null, crashing the process. An attacker who can reliably trigger it turns the crash into a denial of service. The fix is checking for null before use and handling the failure path gracefully.

General guidance for the null pointer dereference 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:<= 2.46

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
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.46
Vendor patch sourceware.org →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Binutils 2.47 or later (any stable release after 2.46)

  1. 1. Identify the current Binutils version installed: `readelf --version` or `binutils --version`
  2. 2. If version is 2.46 or earlier, plan for upgrade
  3. 3. Obtain Binutils version 2.47 or later from the official GNU source: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/
  4. 4. Download and extract the source: `tar -xjf binutils-X.XX.tar.bz2`
  5. 5. Create a build directory: `mkdir binutils-build && cd binutils-build`
  6. 6. Configure: `../binutils-X.XX/configure`
  7. 7. Compile: `make -j$(nproc)`
  8. 8. Install: `sudo make install`
Caveat Standard upgrade risk: minor incompatibilities may exist with custom ELF processing scripts; recommend testing in non-production environment first

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

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $2,850. Get the upgrade done

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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-2025-69651 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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