CVE-2016-5033 Libdwarf Project CVE debrief

Who should care

Teams that build, package, ship, or embed libdwarf; maintainers of tools that parse DWARF data; and defenders responsible for systems that ingest untrusted files containing debug information.

Technical summary

NVD classifies the weakness as CWE-125 (out-of-bounds read). The vulnerable code path is print_exprloc_content in libdwarf, and the issue is reachable through a crafted file. The NVD CVSS 3.1 vector is AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, indicating no privileges are needed, but user interaction is required and availability impact is high.

Defensive priority

Medium priority. The issue is publicly documented and has a clear affected-version boundary, but it is not listed as a known KEV item in the supplied data. Prioritize if libdwarf is present in exposed file-processing workflows or if untrusted files are routinely opened or parsed.

Recommended defensive actions

• Verify whether any deployed products or build pipelines use libdwarf versions earlier than 2016-09-23.
• Upgrade to a libdwarf release at or after 2016-09-23, or apply the vendor-provided fix if you maintain a downstream package.
• Reduce exposure by restricting which files can be submitted to libdwarf-based parsers and by validating untrusted inputs before parsing.
• If you cannot upgrade immediately, place libdwarf-based processing behind user workflow controls and monitoring so malformed files are less likely to be opened unintentionally.
• Track downstream distributions and embedded copies of libdwarf, not just the upstream package, because packaged libraries may lag behind upstream fixes.

Evidence notes

The vulnerability description and affected-version boundary come from the supplied NVD record for CVE-2016-5033. The record states: "The print_exprloc_content function in libdwarf before 20160923 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) via a crafted file." NVD also supplies CVSS 3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H and CWE-125. Reference links in the corpus include an OSS-security mailing list patch post dated 2016-05-24, an OSS-security mailing list exploit-related post dated 2016-05-25, and a Prevanders advisory page.

Official resources