A flaw in the readelf component of binutils allows a local attacker to cause a DoS by processing a specially crafted ELF file. The vulnerability arises from a null pointer dereference (CWE-476) that can trigger excessive resource consumption or a program crash. The impact is limited to interrupting the availability of services that rely on readelf, rather than compromising confidentiality or integrity.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 6 through 10, Red Hat Hardened Images, and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 are affected. Any installation of binutils on these systems that includes the readelf utility is vulnerable; the specific patched versions are not listed in the available data.

The CVSS score of 5 indicates medium severity. EPSS data is not available, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog, implying no publicly known exploitation yet. Attackers must have local access to supply a malicious ELF file to the vulnerable readelf utility, making the exploit path fairly constrained. The DoS can affect user sessions or services that depend on readelf, but it does not provide remote code execution or privilege escalation.