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Fencer Intel
medium 6.8

CVE-2015-7942 json

The xmlParseConditionalSections function in parser.c in libxml2 does not properly skip intermediary entities when it stops parsing invalid…

published 2015-11-18 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-7839

cvss
6.8
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
4.5%
EPSS 4.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 91%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The xmlParseConditionalSections function in parser.c in libxml2 does not properly skip intermediary entities when it stops parsing invalid input, which allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read and crash) via crafted XML data, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-7941.

Patch / fix

  • libxml2 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.9.3+dfsg1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-7942

  • libxml2 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.9.1+dfsg1-3ubuntu4.5

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-7942

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • libxml2 RHEL 7 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2
  • libxml2-python RHEL 7 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2
  • libxml2 RHEL 6 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1
  • libxml2-python RHEL 6 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2015:2550RHSA-2015:2549

  • libxml2 SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12 SP1 +5 more 2.9.1-13.1
  • python-libxml2 SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12 SP1 +3 more 2.9.1-13.1
  • libxml2 SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES for SAP 11 SP3, SLES 11 SP4 +6 more 2.7.6-0.34.1
  • libxml2-python SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES for SAP 11 SP3, SLES 11 SP4 +4 more 2.7.6-0.34.4

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:0049-1SUSE-SU-2016:0030-1

  • rubygem-nokogiri openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.18.9-1.4
  • rubygem-nokogiri openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.18.2-1.1
  • rubygem-nokogiri openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.15.5-1.5
  • libxml2 openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.9.4-1.22
  • rubygem-nokogiri openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.6.8.1-1.3
  • rubygem-nokogiri openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.13.3-1.1
  • ruby3.2-rubygem-nokogiri openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.13.9-1.7

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:10356-1openSUSE-SU-2025:14697-1openSUSE-SU-2024:14174-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10192-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10549-1openSUSE-SU-2024:11912-1

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-2015-7942 updated cvss 4.3

libxml2: heap-based buffer overflow in xmlParseConditionalSections()

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 libxml2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 libxml2 Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 2 libxml2
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) libxml2 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-python 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) libxml2-devel 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-static 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-debuginfo 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) libxml2 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-python 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) libxml2-devel 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-static 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-debuginfo 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2550
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-python 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) libxml2-devel 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-static 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-debuginfo 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-python 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) libxml2-devel 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-static 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-debuginfo 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-python 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2549
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) libxml2 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-python 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2550
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) libxml2-static 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-debuginfo 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2549
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) libxml2-static 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-debuginfo 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2550
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) libxml2 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-python 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2549
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) libxml2 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-python 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2550
show 3 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) libxml2-static 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1, libxml2-debuginfo 2.7.6-20.el6_7.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2549
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) libxml2-static 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2, libxml2-debuginfo 2.9.1-6.el7_2.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2550
  • Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3.0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1089

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

4.48% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 91% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • bugzilla.gnome.org https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=744980#c8 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • bugzilla.gnome.org https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=756456 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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.