CVE-2018-14404
Published: August 31, 2023Last modified: July 22, 2025
Description
A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability exists in the xpath.c:xmlXPathCompOpEval() function of libxml2 through 2.9.8 when parsing an invalid XPath expression in the XPATH_OP_AND or XPATH_OP_OR case. Applications processing untrusted XSL format inputs with the use of the libxml2 library may be vulnerable to a denial of service attack due to a crash of the application.
Severity score breakdown
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score | 7.5 |
| Attack Vector | NETWORK |
| Attack complexity | LOW |
| Privileges required | NONE |
| User interaction | NONE |
| Scope | UNCHANGED |
| Confidentiality | NONE |
| Integrity impact | NONE |
| Availability impact | HIGH |
| Vector | CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
Status
| Product | Release | Package | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpaquita Linux | 23 LTS | libxml2 | Not affected (2.10.4-r0) |
| Stream | libxml2 | Not affected (2.11.5-r0) | |
| Hardened Containers | 23 LTS | libxml2 | Not affected (2.10.4-r0) |
| Stream | libxml2 | Not affected (2.11.5-r0) |
References
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:1543
- https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=901817
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1595985
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/issues/10
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/09/msg00035.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/09/msg00009.html
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190719-0002/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3739-1/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3739-2/