CVE-2020-35507: 
NixOS vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability was discovered in GNU Binutils versions prior to 2.34, specifically in the bfd_pef_parse_function_stubs function of bfd/pef.c. The vulnerability was assigned CVE-2020-35507 and was disclosed on January 4, 2021. The flaw affects the objdump utility when processing crafted files (NVD, Red Hat).

The vulnerability occurs in the bfd_pef_parse_function_stubs function where memory is allocated using bfd_malloc() without checking for NULL before passing the returned pointer to bfd_read(), which then dereferences it. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 Base Score of 5.5 (MEDIUM) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H (Red Hat, NVD).

The primary impact of this vulnerability is to application availability. When successfully exploited, an attacker who can submit a crafted file to be processed by objdump could cause a denial of service condition through a NULL pointer dereference (NVD, NetApp).

The vulnerability requires local access and user interaction, as an attacker must be able to submit a crafted file to be processed by the objdump utility. The attack complexity is considered low, requiring no special access conditions for repeatable success (NVD).

The vulnerability was fixed in GNU Binutils version 2.34 and later. The upstream patch addresses the issue by adding a NULL check before calling bfd_read(). Users are advised to upgrade to version 2.34 or later to mitigate this vulnerability (Gentoo, Red Hat).