CVE-2020-16591

MEDIUMNVD 5.55.5—

5.5

A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) in GNU Binutils 2.35 due to an invalid read in process_symbol_table, as demonstrated in readeif.

CVSS v3: 5.5
EG Score: 5.5(medium)
EPSS: 59.6%
KEV: Not listed

Published

December 9, 2020

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

References (6)

cve@mitrehttps://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210115-0003/
cve@mitrehttps://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=25822
cve@mitrehttps://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git%3Bh=001890e1f9269697f7e0212430a51479271bdab2
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210115-0003/
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=25822
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git%3Bh=001890e1f9269697f7e0212430a51479271bdab2

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

CWE-125Out-of-bounds Read

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 16× in last 7d / 20× in last 30d)

Every time one of our enrichment pipelines (NVD, MITRE cvelistV5, EPSS, CISA KEV, GHSA, OSV, vendor advisories) ran against this CVE. Most recent first.

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Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2020-16591?

CVE-2020-16591 is a medium vulnerability published on December 9, 2020. A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) in GNU Binutils 2.35 due to an invalid read in processsymboltable, as demonstrated in readeif.

When was CVE-2020-16591 disclosed?

CVE-2020-16591 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on December 9, 2020, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.

Is CVE-2020-16591 actively exploited?

CVE-2020-16591 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 59.6% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.

What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-16591?

CVE-2020-16591 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.5 (NVD).

How do I remediate CVE-2020-16591?

Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2020-16591, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

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CVE-2020-16591

📅 Published

🔄 Last Modified

🔗 References (6)

Weakness Classification(1)

Data Freshness Timeline

❓ Frequently asked(5)

Dependency Blast Radius

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2020-16591?

🔗 Related CVEs(same CWE)

Same CWE

Published

Last Modified

References (6)

Frequently asked(5)

Related CVEs(same CWE)