diff -rupN --no-dereference binutils-2.37/gold/fileread.cc binutils-2.37-new/gold/fileread.cc

--- binutils-2.37/gold/fileread.cc	2021-07-08 13:37:20.000000000 +0200

+++ binutils-2.37-new/gold/fileread.cc	2021-07-24 21:59:22.937765719 +0200

@@ -385,6 +385,12 @@ File_read::do_read(off_t start, section_

   ssize_t bytes;

   if (this->whole_file_view_ != NULL)

     {

+      // See PR 23765 for an example of a testcase that triggers this error.

+      if (((ssize_t) start) < 0)

+	gold_fatal(_("%s: read failed, starting offset (%#llx) less than zero"),

+		   this->filename().c_str(),

+		   static_cast<long long>(start));

+	

       bytes = this->size_ - start;

       if (static_cast<section_size_type>(bytes) >= size)

 	{