How severe is CVE-2017-8395?

CVE-2017-8395 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.5, rated high severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.

Is CVE-2017-8395 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 2% (77th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2017-8395?

CVE-2017-8395 affects Gnu Binutils. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.

How do I fix CVE-2017-8395?

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-2017-8395 published?

CVE-2017-8395 was published on 2017-05-01 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2017-8395

CVE-2017-8395 is a high-severity vulnerability in Gnu Binutils with a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.5. 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-476.

Key facts

Severity: High (CVSS 3.x base score 7.5)
CVSS v2: 5.0
EPSS exploit prediction: 2% (77th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-476
Affected product: Gnu Binutils
Published: 2017-05-01
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

The Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.28, is vulnerable to an invalid write of size 8 because of missing a malloc() return-value check to see if memory had actually been allocated in the _bfd_generic_get_section_contents function. This vulnerability causes programs that conduct an analysis of binary programs using the libbfd library, such as objcopy, to crash.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-8395?: The Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.28, is vulnerable to an invalid write of size 8 because of missing a malloc() return-value check to see if memory had actually been allocated in the _bfd_generic_get_section_contents function. This vulnerability causes programs that conduct an analysis of binary programs using the libbfd library, such as objcopy, to crash.
How severe is CVE-2017-8395?: CVE-2017-8395 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.5, rated high severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.
Is CVE-2017-8395 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 2% (77th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2017-8395?: CVE-2017-8395 affects Gnu Binutils. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2017-8395?: 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-2017-8395 published?: CVE-2017-8395 was published on 2017-05-01 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (1)

cpe:2.3:a:gnu:binutils:2.28:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

More vulnerabilities in Gnu Binutils

CVE-2018-12699 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): finish_stab in stabs.c in GNU Binutils 2.30 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (heap-based buffer overflow)…
CVE-2017-7614 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): elflink.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.28, has a "member…
CVE-2014-9939 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): ihex.c in GNU Binutils before 2.26 contains a stack buffer overflow when printing bad bytes in Intel Hex objects.
CVE-2017-7226 — Critical (CVSS 9.1): The pe_ILF_object_p function in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils…
CVE-2017-6969 — Critical (CVSS 9.1): readelf in GNU Binutils 2.28 is vulnerable to a heap-based buffer over-read while processing corrupt RL78 binaries. The…
CVE-2020-19726 — High (CVSS 8.8): An issue was discovered in binutils libbfd.c 2.36 relating to the auxiliary symbol data allows attackers to read or…

All CVEs affecting Gnu Binutils →

Other CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) vulnerabilities

CVE-2022-36648 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The hardware emulation in the of_dpa_cmd_add_l2_flood of rocker device model in QEMU, as used in 7.0.0 and earlier,…
CVE-2020-14500 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Secomea GateManager all versions prior to 9.2c, An attacker can send a negative value and overwrite arbitrary data.
CVE-2010-2495 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The pppol2tp_xmit function in drivers/net/pppol2tp.c in the L2TP implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does…
CVE-2026-46195 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: validate dacloffset before building…
CVE-2026-31657 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: batman-adv: hold claim backbone gateways by…
CVE-2026-31436 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dmaengine: idxd: fix possible wrong descriptor…

Browse all CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) vulnerabilities →