CVE-2021-3549 [High] | Memory Corruption in Binutils

An out of bounds flaw was found in GNU binutils objdump utility version 2.36. An attacker could use this flaw and pass a large section to avr_elf32_load_records_from_section() probably resulting in a crash or in some cases memory corruption. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to integrity as well as system availability.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.35%	0.97%	+0.63%
2	2026-04-08	0.19%	0.35%	+0.15%
3	2026-01-31	—	0.19%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.35%

0.97%

+0.63%

2026-04-08

0.19%

0.35%

+0.15%

2026-01-31

—

0.19%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
7.1	3.1	HIGH	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:L) They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:N) No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough. User interaction (UI:R) A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:H) They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	1.8	5.2	[email protected]
5.8	2.0	MEDIUM	`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P` Click to expand Access vector (AV:N) Can be exploited remotely over network reachability. Access complexity (AC:M) Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones. Authentication (AU:N) No authentication is required. Confidentiality impact (C:N) No confidentiality impact. Integrity impact (I:P) Partial integrity impact. Availability impact (A:P) Partial availability impact.	8.6	4.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

7.1

3.1

HIGH

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

Attack vector (AV:L): They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N): No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R): A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H): They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

1.8

5.2

[email protected]

5.8

2.0

MEDIUM

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P Click to expand

Access vector (AV:N): Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M): Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N): No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N): No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P): Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P): Partial availability impact.

8.6

4.9

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-3549

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2021-3549 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (binutils), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-3549
`gentoo`	normal	CVE-2021-3549: 1 GLSA(s) (202208-30), 2 atom(s) (sys-devel/binutils, sys-libs/binutils-libs); latest impact normal.	https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-3549
`redhat`	low	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3549
`suse`	high	CVE-2021-3549 severity important: SUSE including 5 source package names (binutils, binutils-devel, binutils-devel-32bit, libctf-nobfd0, libctf0), 110 product×package rows across 36 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, … (36 product lines)): Known Not Affected 110.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3549/
`ubuntu`	low	CVE-2021-3549 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (binutils), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 5, released 3, ignored 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-3549

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-3549

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
gnu	binutils	2.36	cpe:2.3:a:gnu:binutils:2.36:::::::*

References for CVE-2021-3549

URL	Tags
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1960717	Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-30	Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20250228-0005/

URL

CVE-2021-3549

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-3549

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-3549

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-3549

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-3549

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-3549

References for CVE-2021-3549