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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.5

CVE-2008-3281 json

libxml2 2.6.32 and earlier does not properly detect recursion during entity expansion in an attribute value, which allows context-dependent…

published 2008-08-27 18 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-3269

cvss
6.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.5%
EPSS 2.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 84%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

libxml2 2.6.32 and earlier does not properly detect recursion during entity expansion in an attribute value, which allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (memory and CPU consumption) via a crafted XML document.

Patch / fix

  • apple safari 4.0
  • apple iphone_os 3.0
  • libxml2 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.6.32.dfsg-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2008-3281

  • libxml2 RHEL 2.1 2.4.19-9.ent
  • libxml2 RHEL 3 2.5.10-11
  • libxml2 RHEL 4 2.6.16-12.3
  • libxml2 RHEL 5 2.6.26-2.1.2.4
  • libxml2-python RHEL 2.1 2.4.19-9.ent
  • libxml2-python RHEL 3 2.5.10-11
  • libxml2-python RHEL 4 2.6.16-12.3
  • libxml2-python RHEL 5 2.6.26-2.1.2.4

red hat advisories RHSA-2008:0836

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2008-3281 updated

libxml2 denial of service

  • Red Hat Desktop version 3 libxml2 2.5.10-11, libxml2-python 2.5.10-11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) libxml2 2.6.26-2.1.2.4, libxml2-python 2.6.26-2.1.2.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (Advanced Server) version 2.1 libxml2 2.4.19-9.ent, libxml2-python 2.4.19-9.ent Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3 libxml2 2.5.10-11, libxml2-python 2.5.10-11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 libxml2 2.6.16-12.3, libxml2-python 2.6.16-12.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) libxml2 2.6.26-2.1.2.4, libxml2-python 2.6.26-2.1.2.4
    +9 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 libxml2 2.6.16-12.3, libxml2-python 2.6.16-12.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) libxml2 2.6.26-2.1.2.4, libxml2-python 2.6.26-2.1.2.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 2.1 libxml2 2.4.19-9.ent, libxml2-python 2.4.19-9.ent Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3 libxml2 2.5.10-11, libxml2-python 2.5.10-11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 libxml2 2.6.16-12.3, libxml2-python 2.6.16-12.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 2.1 libxml2 2.4.19-9.ent, libxml2-python 2.4.19-9.ent Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3 libxml2 2.5.10-11, libxml2-python 2.5.10-11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 libxml2 2.6.16-12.3, libxml2-python 2.6.16-12.3 Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1 libxml2 2.4.19-9.ent, libxml2-python 2.4.19-9.ent
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:0836

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

2.51% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 84% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-776 Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.