CVE-2016-5027 Libdwarf Project CVE debrief

Who should care

Administrators, developers, and packagers using libdwarf 20160115, especially any software that parses ELF files from untrusted or user-supplied sources.

Technical summary

The NVD record maps this issue to CWE-476 (null pointer dereference) in dwarf_form.c. The CVE description says remote attackers can cause a crash via a crafted ELF file, while the NVD CVSS vector classifies the attack as AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R with high availability impact and no confidentiality or integrity impact. The vulnerable CPE entry is libdwarf_project:libdwarf:2016-01-15.

Defensive priority

Medium. This is a crash/availability issue rather than a code-execution flaw, but it is still important wherever libdwarf handles untrusted ELF input.

Recommended defensive actions

• Identify systems and applications that ship or embed libdwarf 20160115.
• Apply the vendor or downstream fix referenced in the linked oss-security advisories and related issue tracker entry.
• Restrict processing of untrusted ELF files until remediation is in place.
• Treat unexpected crashes in ELF parsing paths as security-relevant and investigate affected inputs.
• Verify whether packaged libdwarf versions in your environment correspond to the vulnerable 20160115 CPE entry.

Evidence notes

The supplied official sources include the CVE record and NVD detail page, plus linked oss-security mailing-list references from 2016-05-24 and 2016-05-25 and a Red Hat Bugzilla issue. The CVE/NVD data identifies libdwarf 20160115 as vulnerable, classifies the weakness as CWE-476, and provides the CVSS v3.0 vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H. The record was published on 2017-02-24 and later modified on 2026-05-13; those dates describe record handling, not the original bug date.

Official resources