CVE-2025-69651

Exp

GNU Binutils thru 2.46 readelf contains a vulnerability that leads to an invalid pointer free when processing a crafted ELF binary with malformed relocation or symbol data. If dump_relocations returns early due to parsing errors, the internal all_relocations array may remain partially uninitialized. Later, process_got_section_contents() may attempt to free an invalid r_symbol pointer, triggering memory corruption checks in glibc and causing the program to terminate with SIGABRT. No evidence of further memory corruption or code execution was observed; the impact is limited to denial of service. NOTE: this is disputed by third parties because the observed behavior occurred only in pre-release code and did not affect any tagged version.

Published: 2026-03-06 Last update: 2026-03-19 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-69651 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2025-69651

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-69651

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-03-07 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-69651

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-69651

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-69651

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2025-69651: 1 source package rows (binutils); 62 state rows across 6 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, 3.23-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 62. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2025-69651
debian unimportant CVE-2025-69651 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (binutils), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-69651
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-69651
suse low CVE-2025-69651 severity low: SUSE including 7 source package names (binutils, binutils-devel, …), 92 product×package rows across 23 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, … (23 product lines)): Known Not Affected 92. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-69651/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-69651 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (binutils), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): needed 7, not-affected 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-69651

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-69651

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu binutils <= 2.46 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:binutils:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-69651

cvelogic Threat Intelligence