NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting vtk9 package, versions *


Severity

Recommended
medium

Based on Ubuntu security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
1.09% (63rd percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-UBUNTU2204-VTK9-2993977
  • published15 Apr 2026
  • disclosed25 Aug 2022

Introduced: 25 Aug 2022

CVE-2021-42521  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-476  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

There is no fixed version for Ubuntu:22.04 vtk9.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream vtk9 package and not the vtk9 package as distributed by Ubuntu. See How to fix? for Ubuntu:22.04 relevant fixed versions and status.

There is a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in VTK before 9.2.5, and it lies in IO/Infovis/vtkXMLTreeReader.cxx. The vendor didn't check the return value of libxml2 API 'xmlDocGetRootElement', and try to dereference it. It is unsafe as the return value can be NULL and that NULL pointer dereference may crash the application.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1