How severe is CVE-2017-14745?

CVE-2017-14745 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.8, rated high severity. It is exploitable over local access with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.

Is CVE-2017-14745 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 1% (64th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2017-14745?

CVE-2017-14745 affects Gnu Binutils. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.

How do I fix CVE-2017-14745?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its high severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.

When was CVE-2017-14745 published?

CVE-2017-14745 was published on 2017-09-26 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2017-14745

CVE-2017-14745 is a high-severity vulnerability in Gnu Binutils with a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.8. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-190.

Key facts

Severity: High (CVSS 3.x base score 7.8)
CVSS v2: 6.8
EPSS exploit prediction: 1% (64th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-190
Affected product: Gnu Binutils
Published: 2017-09-26
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

The *_get_synthetic_symtab functions in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29, interpret a -1 value as a sorting count instead of an error flag, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (integer overflow and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted ELF file, related to elf32-i386.c and elf64-x86-64.c.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-14745?: The *_get_synthetic_symtab functions in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29, interpret a -1 value as a sorting count instead of an error flag, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (integer overflow and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted ELF file, related to elf32-i386.c and elf64-x86-64.c.
How severe is CVE-2017-14745?: CVE-2017-14745 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.8, rated high severity. It is exploitable over local access with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.
Is CVE-2017-14745 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 1% (64th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2017-14745?: CVE-2017-14745 affects Gnu Binutils. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2017-14745?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its high severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.
When was CVE-2017-14745 published?: CVE-2017-14745 was published on 2017-09-26 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22148

Affected products (1)

cpe:2.3:a:gnu:binutils:2.29:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

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