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Fencer Intel
medium 4.3

CVE-2013-0338 json

libxml2 2.9.0 and earlier allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU and memory consumption) via an XML file cont…

published 13y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2013-0350

cvss
4.3
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.9%
EPSS 2.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 86%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

libxml2 2.9.0 and earlier allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU and memory consumption) via an XML file containing an entity declaration with long replacement text and many references to this entity, aka "internal entity expansion" with linear complexity.

Patch / fix

  • libxml2 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.8.0+dfsg1-7+nmu1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2013-0338

  • libxml2 RHEL 5 2.6.26-2.1.21.el5_9.1
  • libxml2 RHEL 6 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1
  • libxml2-python RHEL 5 2.6.26-2.1.21.el5_9.1
  • libxml2-python RHEL 6 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2013:0581

  • libxml2 openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.9.4-1.22

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10192-1

Is CVE-2013-0338 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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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-2013-0338 updated cvss 4.3

libxml2: CPU consumption DoS when performing string substitutions during entities expansion

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 mingw32-libxml2
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) libxml2 2.6.26-2.1.21.el5_9.1, libxml2-python 2.6.26-2.1.21.el5_9.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1, libxml2-python 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1, libxml2-python 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1, libxml2-python 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1
    +3 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1, libxml2-python 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-12.el6_4.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2013:0581

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

2.86% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 86% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

Sources

Fencer Intel 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.