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CVE-2016-5037 Libdwarf Project CVE debrief

CVE-2016-5037 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in libdwarf’s _dwarf_load_section function. According to NVD, a crafted file can trigger a NULL pointer dereference in affected versions before 20160923. The published CVSS 3.1 vector indicates remote attack conditions, no privileges required, but user interaction is needed to open or process the malicious file. The primary impact is availability loss rather than code execution or data theft.

Vendor
Libdwarf Project
Product
CVE-2016-5037
CVSS
MEDIUM 6.5
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-02-17
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-02-17
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Teams that parse or inspect untrusted DWARF data should pay attention, including developers of debuggers, binary analysis tools, build systems, crash-reporting pipelines, and any service that accepts files and passes them to libdwarf. End-user applications that open externally supplied files also matter because the CVSS vector requires user interaction.

Technical summary

NVD describes CVE-2016-5037 as a NULL pointer dereference in libdwarf’s _dwarf_load_section function, affecting libdwarf versions before 20160923. The vulnerability is classified as CWE-476. The CVSS 3.1 vector is AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, which fits a crash-oriented denial-of-service condition triggered when a user processes a crafted file.

Defensive priority

Medium. Prioritize remediation where libdwarf is used in exposed file-processing workflows, developer tools, or any application that regularly opens untrusted inputs. The issue is availability-focused, but it is still worth fixing because crashes can be repeated and may disrupt analysis or automation pipelines.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade libdwarf to 20160923 or later, which NVD lists as the version boundary for affected releases.
  • Inventory applications and libraries that bundle or depend on libdwarf, including transitive dependencies in build and analysis tools.
  • Treat externally supplied DWARF-containing files as untrusted and process them in isolated or sandboxed environments when possible.
  • Add crash monitoring and regression tests around file parsing paths so malformed inputs are detected early.
  • If upgrading is not immediately possible, restrict who can submit files for parsing and minimize exposure of any service that invokes libdwarf on user-controlled inputs.

Evidence notes

NVD’s record for CVE-2016-5037 states that _dwarf_load_section in libdwarf before 20160923 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted file, with CWE-476 as the weakness classification. The NVD CVSS 3.1 vector is AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H. The referenced Openwall mailing-list items include a patch-related post dated 2016-05-24, an exploit-related post dated 2016-05-25, and a third-party advisory page at prevanders.net, all of which support the file-parsing crash context without requiring additional assumptions.

Official resources

CVE-2016-5037 was published by CVE/NVD on 2017-02-17. Supporting mailing-list references in the source corpus date to 2016-05-24 and 2016-05-25, and the NVD record was last modified on 2026-05-13.