Use After Free Affecting mingw-binutils-generic package, versions *


Severity

Recommended
0.0
medium
0
10

Based on CentOS security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.12% (3rd percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-CENTOS10-MINGWBINUTILSGENERIC-18746609
  • published13 Aug 2026
  • disclosed12 Aug 2026

Introduced: 12 Aug 2026

NewCVE-2026-19548  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-416  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

There is no fixed version for Centos:10 mingw-binutils-generic.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream mingw-binutils-generic package and not the mingw-binutils-generic package as distributed by Centos. See How to fix? for Centos:10 relevant fixed versions and status.

Multiple Use-After-Free vulnerabilities were found in the add_archive_element function in ld/ldmain.c of the GNU linker (ld), a component of binutils. The root cause is that plugin_maybe_claim() in ld/plugin.c frees the original BFD object via bfd_close/_bfd_delete_bfd when entry->the_bfd->my_archive == NULL, but the caller retains both the original abfd parameter and a shallow copy (orig_input.the_bfd) as dangling pointers. These dangling pointers are subsequently dereferenced at three distinct locations in add_archive_element:

  1. Line ~1442: accessing abfd->my_archive via bfd_usrdata(abfd->my_archive)
  2. Line ~1493: multiple accesses to abfd and abfd->my_archive in a conditional check and bfd_get_filename call
  3. Line ~1525: dereferencing the shallow copy orig_input.the_bfd->my_archive in trace/verbose logging

The vulnerability is triggered when LTO plugins are active (link_info.lto_plugin_active is true) and the input object has abfd->my_archive == NULL, which is a valid state for standalone object files. Red Hat builds binutils with --enable-plugins and --enable-lto, confirming the vulnerable code path is compiled in and reachable.

An attacker who can supply a crafted object or archive file to a build process using LTO-enabled linking could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (linker crash via segmentation fault). Arbitrary code execution is theoretically possible through heap manipulation but is substantially mitigated by hardening measures including stack protector, FORTIFY_SOURCE, ASLR, and PIE.

The attack surface is limited to build-time environments — the linker is a development tool not exposed in production runtime. The most realistic exploitation scenario is a supply chain attack introducing a crafted object file as a build dependency in CI/CD pipelines or development environments.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1