Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A specially crafted ELF file can make Red Hat's readelf utility crash or consume enough resources to disrupt availability. An attacker must get a local user or automated process to inspect the file. The supplied evidence shows no confidentiality or integrity impact.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate availability risk, prioritizing systems that automatically inspect untrusted binaries. Accelerate remediation where analysis shares resources with production services. Routine patching is appropriate elsewhere; the provided evidence does not justify emergency incident response.
Technical view
CVE-2026-6845 affects binutils readelf and is classified as CWE-476. Processing a crafted ELF file may cause a crash or excessive resource consumption. CVSS 3.1 is 5.0: local access, low complexity, low privileges, user interaction, unchanged scope, and high availability impact only.
Likely exposure
Exposure is highest where affected Red Hat packages inspect untrusted ELF files, including development, build, debugging, or automated analysis workflows. The bundle identifies affected packages across RHEL 6–10 and two Red Hat Hardened Images. It does not establish exposure for other vendors or deployments.
Exploitation context
The attack is local and requires a user or process to handle a crafted ELF file. No active exploitation is established: the supplied record is not in KEV, and no cited evidence describes exploitation in the wild. No remote, unauthenticated attack path is supported.
Researcher notes
The supplied description attributes denial of service to a crash or resource exhaustion, while CWE-476 indicates a null-pointer dereference. The precise fault path and fixed-version boundaries are not included. Researchers should use Red Hat's issue tracker and errata for package-specific status without assuming all upstream binutils releases are affected.
Mitigation direction
- Review Red Hat's CVE page and both errata for applicable fixed package versions.
- Apply relevant Red Hat security updates through normal change management.
- Prevent untrusted users from submitting ELF files to automated readelf workflows.
- Run unavoidable file analysis with least privilege and resource limits.
- Isolate high-risk analysis pipelines from availability-critical systems.
Validation and detection
- Inventory affected Red Hat systems, images, and listed binutils, GDB, GCC Toolset, or MinGW packages.
- Identify users and automated workflows that invoke readelf on externally supplied files.
- Compare installed package versions with the applicable Red Hat errata.
- Confirm updated systems no longer report vulnerable package versions.
- Verify analysis jobs enforce resource limits and isolate untrusted inputs.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-476: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupContainer behavior lookup
The affected technology mentions containers, so container-specific ATT&CK technique review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2026-6845 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H1.33.6redhatVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- Source timelineredhat
Reported to Red Hat.
- Source timelineredhat
Made public.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- RHSA-2026:34924CVE reference, redhat · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2026:39022CVE reference, redhat · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-6845CVE reference, redhat · vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2460012CVE reference, redhat · issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
NULL Pointer Dereference
NULL Pointer Dereference represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.