Security advisory
The _bfd_coff_read_string_table function in coffgen.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29.1, does not properly validate the size of the external string table, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (excessive memory consumption, or heap-based buffer overflow and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted COFF binary.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2017-17124
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 07:09 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
The _bfd_coff_read_string_table function in coffgen.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29.1, does not properly validate the size of the external string table, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (excessive memory consumption, or heap-based buffer overflow and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted COFF binary.
osv:CVE-2017-17124
Complete source record
{
"id": "7f354478bdebc37c8eea556f9d6dd65b3acb57fdb9ba36fc00d6d3db5f12bc43",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-17124",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2017-17124",
"summary": "The _bfd_coff_read_string_table function in coffgen.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29.1, does not properly validate the size of the external string table, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (excessive memory consumption, or heap-based buffer overflow and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted COFF binary.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2017-17124",
"products": [],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2017-17124",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2017-17124"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://sourceware.org/git/binutils-gdb.git",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "90276f15379d380761fc499da2ba24cfb3c12a94"
},
{
"last_affected": "90276f15379d380761fc499da2ba24cfb3c12a94"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:gnu:binutils:2.29.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.29.1"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.29.1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
"2.29.1",
"binutils-2_29_1"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2017-17124.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-24T10:30:49.516383828Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git%3Bh=b0029dce6867de1a2828293177b0e030d2f0f03c",
"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201811-17",
"https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22507"
],
"provider_metadata": {}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2017-17124",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 437018,
"published_at": "2017-12-04T08:29:00.577+00:00"
}