Vulnerability identifier: #VU32386

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 6.5 [CVSS:3.1/CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2015-5312

CWE-ID: CWE-399

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Libxml2
Universal components / Libraries / Libraries used by multiple products

Vendor: Gnome Development Team

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote non-authenticated attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The xmlStringLenDecodeEntities function in parser.c in libxml2 before 2.9.3 does not properly prevent entity expansion, which allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via crafted XML data, a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-3660.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Libxml2: 2.9.0 - 2.9.2

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External links
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00000.html
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00001.html
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00002.html
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00004.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-12/msg00120.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-01/msg00031.html
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=145382616617563&w=2
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2549.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2550.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1089.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3430
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjan2016-2867206.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinoct2015-2719645.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/79536
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034243
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2834-1
http://xmlsoft.org/news.html
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1276693
http://git.gnome.org/browse/libxml2/commit/?id=69030714cde66d525a8884bda01b9e8f0abf8e1e
http://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c04944172
http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-37
http://support.apple.com/HT206166
http://support.apple.com/HT206167
http://support.apple.com/HT206168
http://support.apple.com/HT206169

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.