VulnerabilityPublished 9 Mar 2026Updated 10 Mar 2026

CVE-2025-69647: GNU Binutils readelf · CVE-2025-69647 is a denial-of-service

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.2 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.2Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 5% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Affects: GNU Binutils readelf through 2.45.1

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 9 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-69647, organizations should: 1) Monitor for updates from GNU Binutils and apply patches promptly once available. 2) Implement input validation and filtering to prevent untrusted or suspicious binaries from being processed by readelf, especially in automated or batch environments. 3) Use resource limits (e.g., CPU time, memory, I/O quotas) on processes running readelf to contain potential denial-of-service effects. 4) Employ sandboxing or containerization to isolate readelf executions, minimizing impact on critical systems. 5) Educate developers and analysts about the risk of processing untrusted binaries and encourage cautious handling. 6) Consider alternative tools or updated versions with fixed DWARF parsing logic until patches are released. 7) Audit and restrict local user permissions to reduce the risk of malicious file introduction. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on operational controls and environment hardening specific to this vulnerability's characteristics.

Description

CVE-2025-69647 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in GNU Binutils readelf through version 2.45.1. The flaw arises from a logic error in parsing malformed DWARF loclists data, causing readelf to enter an infinite output loop without forward progress. This results in excessive CPU and I/O consumption, preventing readelf from completing its analysis. The vulnerability can be triggered locally by supplying a crafted binary file. It does not affect confidentiality or integrity but impacts availability by causing resource exhaustion. No authentication or user interaction is required beyond providing the malicious input file. There are no known exploits in the wild currently, and no patches have been linked yet. The CVSS score is 6.

Impact

Organizations relying on GNU Binutils readelf for binary analysis, debugging, or reverse engineering may experience denial-of-service conditions when processing maliciously crafted binaries containing malformed DWARF loclists. This can disrupt development, security research, and incident response activities by causing readelf to hang indefinitely, consuming excessive CPU and I/O resources. While the vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or integrity, the availability impact could delay critical workflows and analysis. In environments where automated tools invoke readelf on untrusted binaries, such as continuous integration pipelines or malware analysis sandboxes, this vulnerability could be exploited to degrade system performance or cause resource exhaustion. The local attack vector limits remote exploitation, but insider threats or compromised user accounts could leverage this flaw. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the medium severity score indicates a meaningful operational impact if exploited.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 16 Mar 2026, 19:11 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-835

Technical details

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