NULL pointer dereference in expat - CVE-2026-32778
Published: March 24, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU124278
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-32778
CWE-ID: CWE-476
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: libexpat.org
Affected software:
expat
expat
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to a NULL pointer dereference in the function setContext in libexpat when processing XML input under low-memory conditions. A remote attacker can send a specially crafted XML file to cause a denial of service.
Exploitation requires repeated processing of malicious input following an initial out-of-memory condition.
How to mitigate CVE-2026-32778
Install security update from vendor's repository.