CVE-2018-20712 — A heap-based buffer over-read exists in the function d_expression_1 in cp-demang

A heap-based buffer over-read exists in the function d_expression_1 in cp-demangle.c in GNU libiberty, as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.31.1. A crafted input can cause segmentation faults, leading to denial-of-service, as demonstrated by c++filt.

01What is this vulnerability?

A heap-based buffer over-read exists in the function d_expression_1 in cp-demangle.c in GNU libiberty, as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.31.1. A crafted input can cause segmentation faults, leading to denial-of-service, as demonstrated by c++filt.

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2019-01-15T00:00:00.000Z
• Last modified: 2024-08-05T12:05:17.694Z

09References

• gcc.gnu.org — https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=88629
• sourceware.org — https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=24043
• www.securityfocus.com — http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106563
• support.f5.com — https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K38336243