Libexpat
CVE-2016-4472
HIGH
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Bounds checking, buffer size validation
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 8.1 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, high complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 2.27%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could corrupt memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
The overflow protection in Expat is removed by compilers with certain optimization settings, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required. This Buffer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to corrupt memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Use memory-safe languages or bounds-checking. Enable ASLR, DEP/NX, stack canaries. Use safe string functions.
Affects your stack
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Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as Buffer Overflow (CWE-119), which allows attackers to corrupt memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application. The overflow protection in Expat is removed by compilers with certain optimization settings, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via crafted XML data. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2015-1283 and CVE-2015-2716. Affected products include: Libexpat Project Libexpat, Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Mcafee Policy Auditor, Python.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
The overflow protection in Expat is removed by compilers with certain optimization settings, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via crafted XML data. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2015-1283 and CVE-2015-2716.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
In Expat (aka libexpat) before 2.4.5, there is an integer overflow in storeRawNames. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8),
In libexpat before 2.2.8, crafted XML input could fool the parser into changing from DTD parsing to document parsing too
Malformed UTF-16 decoding in libexpat through 2.8.4 lets remote attackers hide XML markup from the parser: a lone high s
In libexpat through 2.4.9, there is a use-after free caused by overeager destruction of a shared DTD in XML_ExternalEnti
Alpine Linux: expat fixed in 2.6.2-r0
XML External Entity vulnerability in libexpat 2.2.0 and earlier (Expat XML Parser Library) allows attackers to put the p
libexpat in Expat before 2.7.2 allows attackers to trigger large dynamic memory allocations via a small document that is
Denial of service in libexpat before 2.8.1 lets remote attackers exhaust CPU by submitting moderately sized crafted XML
expat before version 2.4.0 does not properly handle entities expansion unless an application developer uses the XML_SetE
Expat allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a m
An issue was discovered in libexpat before 2.6.3. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exp
An issue was discovered in libexpat before 2.6.3. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exp
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
VulDB
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB