A buffer overflow was discovered in libxml2 20904-GITv2.9.4-16-g0741801. The function xmlSnprintfElementContent in valid.c is supposed to recursively dump the element content definition into a char buffer 'buf' of size 'size'. The variable len is assigned strlen(buf). If the content->type is XML_ELEMENT_CONTENT_ELEMENT, then (i) the content->prefix is appended to buf (if it actually fits) whereupon (ii) content->name is written to the buffer. However, the check for whether the content->name actually fits also uses 'len' rather than the updated buffer length strlen(buf). This allows us to write about "size" many bytes beyond the allocated memory. This vulnerability causes programs that use libxml2, such as PHP, to crash.
Fix
Patch, vendor advisory and mitigation references on NVD 2
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/05/15/1 Exploit, Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/05/15/1 Exploit, Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
Every line above is quoted from NVD, CISA, Microsoft, the vendor's own advisory or DISA; nothing is generated.
Change history 1
- First seenCVSS 7.5 · xmlsoftNVD modified 2026-10-14 07:16
Affected (CPE criteria) 1
cpe:2.3:a:xmlsoft:libxml2:2.9.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
References 13
- http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3952
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/05/15/1 Exploit, Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98599 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201711-01
- http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3952
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/05/15/1 Exploit, Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98599 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201711-01
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-398330.html