Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-0840

Memory Safety in Gnu Binutils ≤ 2.44

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
29 January 2025
Modified
04 March 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 6.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0073 51th percentile
Risk Priority 33 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-0840 is a medium-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Gnu Binutils. Its CVSS base score is 6.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 49% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-0840 is a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the disassemble_bytes function within binutils/objdump.c of GNU Binutils versions up to and including 2.43. The issue arises from manipulation of the 'buf' argument, classified under CWEs-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer), CWE-121 (Stack-based Buffer Overflow), and CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write). It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.0 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L), rated as medium severity and problematic.

The vulnerability enables remote exploitation with no privileges required, though it demands high attack complexity and user interaction. An attacker could trigger the buffer overflow by supplying a specially crafted input to objdump, potentially resulting in limited impacts: low confidentiality (disclosure of sensitive information), integrity (modification of data), and availability (denial of service). Exploitability is described as difficult, but a proof-of-concept has been publicly disclosed and may be usable.

Advisories recommend upgrading to GNU Binutils version 2.44, which addresses the flaw via commit baac6c221e9d69335bf41366a1c7d87d8ab2f893. Relevant resources include the Sourceware Bugzilla entry (bug 32560) with attachment 15882 detailing the issue, the git patch, and VulDB entries (ctiid.293997, id.293997) for further analysis.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in GNU Binutils up to 2.43. This affects the function disassemble_bytes of the file binutils/objdump.c. The manipulation of the argument buf leads to stack-based buffer overflow. It is possible to initiate…

more

the attack remotely. The complexity of an attack is rather high. The exploitability is told to be difficult. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. Upgrading to version 2.44 is able to address this issue. The identifier of the patch is baac6c221e9d69335bf41366a1c7d87d8ab2f893. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-1579Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-7546Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2023-1972Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-11414Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-11840Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-11494Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-11081Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-11413Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-11412Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-5244Same product: Gnu Binutils

Affected Assets

gnu
binutils
≤ 2.44

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and analysis can discover stack-buffer overflows before deployment.

Input validation directly stops untrusted data from exceeding stack buffer bounds.

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the ability to execute injected code after a stack overflow.

Requiring documented secure-development standards and tools can mandate bounds-checked coding practices that avoid the weakness.

Secure engineering principles require memory-safe design and coding that structurally avoids buffer-boundary violations.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

prevents

Change management can enforce review gates that catch unsafe memory operations before deployment.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248594 OL 8 must implement address space layout randomization (ASLR) to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution. prevents CWE-121
Oracle Linux 9 (1 rule)
  • V-271452 OL 9 must use a Linux Security Module configured to enforce limits on system services. prevents CWE-121

References