Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-1179

Memory Safety in Gnu Binutils 2.43

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
11 February 2025
Modified
03 March 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 2.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/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 0.0056 43th percentile
Risk Priority 15 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-1179 is a low-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Gnu Binutils. Its CVSS base score is 2.3 (Low).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Process Injection (T1055); ranked at the 43th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); 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-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) 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-2025-1179 is a critical vulnerability in GNU Binutils version 2.43 that affects the bfd_putl64 function in the file bfd/libbfd.c within the ld component. The issue results in memory corruption, mapped to CWE-119, and has 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).

The vulnerability enables remote attacks over the network by unauthenticated attackers requiring no privileges, though exploitation demands high complexity and user interaction. Successful exploitation achieves low-level impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. While exploitation is considered difficult, an exploit has been publicly disclosed and may be used.

Advisories recommend upgrading to GNU Binutils version 2.44 to mitigate the issue, as the bug was fixed at some point between the 2.43 and 2.44 releases, according to the code maintainer. Details are available in Sourceware Bugzilla entries, including bug report 32640 and attachment 15915, along with VulDB references.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability was found in GNU Binutils 2.43. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is the function bfd_putl64 of the file bfd/libbfd.c of the component ld. The manipulation leads to memory corruption. The attack may be…

more

launched remotely. The complexity of an attack is rather high. The exploitation is known 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. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component. The code maintainer explains, that "[t]his bug has been fixed at some point between the 2.43 and 2.44 releases".

CWE(s)
CWE-119

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-5244Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-1182Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-5245Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-1180Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-1153Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-11083Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-11495Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-11082Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-1147Same product: Gnu Binutils
CVE-2025-1176Same product: Gnu Binutils

Affected Assets

gnu
binutils
2.43

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

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

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

Input validation directly enforces bounds checking that stops out-of-bounds reads/writes from being introduced or reached.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory protection restricts exploitation impact of buffer overflows without eliminating the underlying coding flaw.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

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

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

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

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

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

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

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

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

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

References