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.
History

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 18:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description 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.
References

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: mitre

Published: 2026-03-06T00:00:00.000Z

Updated: 2026-03-06T18:02:48.859Z

Reserved: 2026-01-09T00:00:00.000Z

Link: CVE-2025-69651

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-03-06T18:16:16.633

Modified: 2026-03-06T18:16:16.633

Link: CVE-2025-69651

cve-icon Redhat

No data.