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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2018-18606

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2018-10-23
  • WeaknessCWE-476

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

An issue was discovered in the merge_strings function in merge.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.31. There is a NULL pointer dereference in _bfd_add_merge_section when attempting to merge sections with large alignments. A specially crafted ELF allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service, as demonstrated by ld.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2018-10-2317:29CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-04 03:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2018-18606?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2018-18606?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
7.0= 7.0no fix published
8.0= 8.0no fix published
9.0= 9.0no fix published
Gnu binutils
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.31= 2.31no fix published
Netapp data ontap
BranchAffectedFixed in
—all versionsno fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • binutilsUbuntu:Pro:16.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2.26.1-1ubuntu1~16.04.8+esm1
  • binutilsUbuntu:Pro:14.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • binutilsUbuntu:18.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2.30-21ubuntu1~18.04.3
  • binutilsTuxCare:Ubuntu:16.04all versions · fixed in 2.26.1-1ubuntu1~16.04.10and 23 other packages
  • binutilsTuxCare:OracleLinux:6all versions · fixed in 1:2.20.51.0.2-5.48.0.3.el6.tuxcare.ol.els3and 1 other package
  • binutilsTuxCare:CentOS:6all versions · fixed in 1:2.20.51.0.2-5.48.1.el6.tuxcare.els3and 1 other package
  • binutilsSUSE:OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8all versions · fixed in 2.32-9.33.1
  • binutilsSUSE:OpenStack Cloud 8all versions · fixed in 2.32-9.33.1

31 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2018-18606 Red Hat Product Security14 known affected

    binutils: NULL pointer dereference in _bfd_add_merge_section in merge_strings function in merge.c

    binutils as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 · binutils220 as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 · binutils as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · +11 more

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2018-18606 · 14 productsWill not fix

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

  • NVDCVSS 3.05.5read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.04.3read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-476read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score2.3 %2026-11-03
  • OSVaffected packages—

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2018-10-23
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-18606?

An issue was discovered in the merge_strings function in merge.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.31. There is a NULL pointer dereference in _bfd_add_merge_section when attempting to merge sections with large alignments. A specially crafted ELF allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service, as demonstrated by ld.

Is CVE-2018-18606 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2018-18606 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 2.3% on 2026-11-03, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2018-18606?

CVE-2018-18606 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM severity), with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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Sources for this record