What is CVE-2017-15225?

CVE-2017-15225 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GNU Binutils, classified under Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2017-10-10.

How severe is CVE-2017-15225?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2017-15225 known to be exploited?

2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in GNU Binutils

CVE-2017-15225

_bfd_dwarf2_cleanup_debug_info in dwarf2.c in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.29, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory leak) via a crafted ELF file.

Published 2017-10-10 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.014 (71.9th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 72nd percentile — 71.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.014 · newest: 0.014 · change: 0.000

Affected products

GNU Binutils — versions 2.29

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-772 — Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi
sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi (Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-15225?: CVE-2017-15225 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GNU Binutils, classified under Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2017-10-10.
How severe is CVE-2017-15225?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2017-15225 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.