Resource Exhaustion Affecting libxml2 package, versions <2.9.10+dfsg-5ubuntu0.20.04.10+esm4


Severity

Recommended
medium

Based on Ubuntu security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.41% (34th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-UBUNTU2004-LIBXML2-15028394
  • published27 Jan 2026
  • disclosed15 Jan 2026

Introduced: 15 Jan 2026

CVE-2026-0992  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-400  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Ubuntu:20.04 libxml2 to version 2.9.10+dfsg-5ubuntu0.20.04.10+esm4 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream libxml2 package and not the libxml2 package as distributed by Ubuntu. See How to fix? for Ubuntu:20.04 relevant fixed versions and status.

A flaw was found in the libxml2 library. This uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability occurs when processing XML catalogs that contain repeated <nextCatalog> elements pointing to the same downstream catalog. A remote attacker can exploit this by supplying crafted catalogs, causing the parser to redundantly traverse catalog chains. This leads to excessive CPU consumption and degrades application availability, resulting in a denial-of-service condition.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1