CVE-2021-20197
When these utilities are run as a privileged user (presumably as part of a script updating binaries across different users), an unprivileged user can trick these utilities into getting ownership of arbitrary files through a symlink.
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.30%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
There is an open race window when writing output in the following utilities in GNU binutils version 2.35 and earlier:ar, objcopy, strip, ranlib. When these utilities are run as a privileged user (presumably as part of a script updating binaries across different users), an unprivileged user can trick these utilities into getting ownership of arbitrary files through a symlink.
- CVSS 3.1
- 6.3 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- EPSS
- 0.30% probability · 23th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-59, CWE-362
- Affected
- gnu/binutils · redhat/enterprise linux · netapp/cloud backup · netapp/ontap select deploy administration utility · netapp/solidfire \& hci management node · broadcom/brocade fabric operating system firmware
- Source
- secalert@redhat.com
EPSS 0.3% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1913743Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-30Third Party Advisory
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210528-0009/Third Party Advisory
- https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=26945Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1913743Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-30Third Party Advisory
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210528-0009/Third Party Advisory
- https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=26945Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.