Gdb: gdb: out-of-bounds write in stabs parser read_member_functions() via crafted elf

Primary CVSS: v3.1 7 HIGH from [email protected]

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

EPSS: 0.001440000 probability, percentile 0.037000000 (date 2026-11-09)

Problem Types: CWE-787 | CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write

Discovery Credit

CNA: Red Hat would like to thank JD Marsters (Bhut Red) for reporting this issue. (en)

Workarounds

CNA: The following practices would help for avoiding exposure and mitigate this flaw: - Do not open untrusted or unknown ELF binaries in GDB without first stripping debug sections. Use `objcopy --remove-section=.stab --remove-section=.stabstr <binary>` before debugging. - Use `readelf -S <binary> | grep stab` to check for the presence of STABS sections before opening a binary in GDB. Legitimate modern binaries use DWARF, not STABS. - Consider using LLDB or other debuggers that do not support STABS for analysis of untrusted binaries. - For automated environments (CI, test farms) that invoke GDB on potentially untrusted binaries, run GDB in a sandboxed or containerized environment with restricted filesystem access. - GDB 17+ deprecates STABS support but still parses it. GDB 18 (expected late 2026/2027) will remove STABS support entirely. - GCC removed STABS emitting in GCC 13 (2023), so legitimately compiled binaries from recent GCC versions will not contain STABS data.