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CVE-2021-20197
There is an open race window when writing output in the following utilities in GNU binutils version 2.35 and earlier:ar, objcopy, strip,…
Medium6.3EPSS 0.30%
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- redhat
Description
There is an open race window when writing output in the following utilities in GNU binutils version 2.35 and earlier:ar, objcopy, strip, ranlib. When these utilities are run as a privileged user (presumably as part of a script updating binaries across different users), an unprivileged user can trick these utilities into getting ownership of arbitrary files through a symlink.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CISA-ADPADP (enrichment) | 3.1 | Medium6.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium6.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.30% · top 77% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
Loading the EPSS history…
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.3.
Weakness
Affected products
binutils
- affected binutils 2.35
References (4)
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1913743 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=26945 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210528-0009/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- GLSA-202208-30 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_GENTOOx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2021-20197)Record last updated .