Xmlsoft: >> Libxml2 >> 2.15.0 Security Vulnerabilities
libxml2 is vulnerable to multiple stack-based buffer overflows in the xmlcatalog utility when running in --shell mode. The usershell() function processes user input using fixed-size stack buffers without proper bounds checking.
By supplying an overly long input line, an attacker can overflow internal buffers (command, arg, and argv) during input parsing. This results in memory corruption within the stack frame.
Successful exploitation may cause a crash or potentially allow arbitrary code execution in the context of the xmlcatalog process.
This issue has been fixed in the commit c2e233fc.
NOTE:
The maintainers of this project did not agree that this issue is a vulnerability and considered it a bug.
CVSS Score
1.8
EPSS Score
0.001
Published
2026-06-29
A flaw was found in libxml2. This vulnerability occurs when the library processes a specially crafted XML Schema Definition (XSD) validated document that includes an internal entity reference. An attacker could exploit this by providing a malicious document, leading to a type confusion error that causes the application to crash. This results in a denial of service (DoS), making the affected system or application unavailable.
CVSS Score
6.5
EPSS Score
0.006
Published
2026-04-23
A flaw was identified in the RelaxNG parser of libxml2 related to how external schema inclusions are handled. The parser does not enforce a limit on inclusion depth when resolving nested <include> directives. Specially crafted or overly complex schemas can cause excessive recursion during parsing. This may lead to stack exhaustion and application crashes, creating a denial-of-service risk.
CVSS Score
3.7
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2026-01-15
A flaw was found in libxml2, an XML parsing library. This uncontrolled recursion vulnerability occurs in the xmlCatalogXMLResolveURI function when an XML catalog contains a delegate URI entry that references itself. A remote attacker could exploit this configuration-dependent issue by providing a specially crafted XML catalog, leading to infinite recursion and call stack exhaustion. This ultimately results in a segmentation fault, causing a Denial of Service (DoS) by crashing affected applications.
CVSS Score
5.9
EPSS Score
0.008
Published
2026-01-15
A flaw was found in the libxml2 library. This uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability occurs when processing XML catalogs that contain repeated <nextCatalog> elements pointing to the same downstream catalog. A remote attacker can exploit this by supplying crafted catalogs, causing the parser to redundantly traverse catalog chains. This leads to excessive CPU consumption and degrades application availability, resulting in a denial-of-service condition.
CVSS Score
2.9
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2026-01-15
A vulnerability was found in libxml2 up to 2.14.5. It has been declared as problematic. This vulnerability affects the function xmlParseSGMLCatalog of the component xmlcatalog. The manipulation leads to uncontrolled recursion. Attacking locally is a requirement. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The real existence of this vulnerability is still doubted at the moment. The code maintainer explains, that "[t]he issue can only be triggered with untrusted SGML catalogs and it makes absolutely no sense to use untrusted catalogs. I also doubt that anyone is still using SGML catalogs at all."
CVSS Score
1.9
EPSS Score
0.002
Published
2025-08-08