CVE-2018-25282

MEDIUM

Nmap 7.70 Denial of Service via XML Entity Expansion

Title source: cna
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2018-25282. PoCs published by Gionathan Reale.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This PoC exploits an XML Entity Expansion (XEE) vulnerability in Nmap 7.70 (ZenMap) by using a maliciously crafted XML file with recursive entity references, leading to a denial of service (DoS) due to excessive resource consumption.

Description

Nmap 7.70 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows local attackers to crash the application by processing malicious XML files with exponential entity expansion. Attackers can create a crafted XML file with nested entity definitions and open it through ZenMap's scan import functionality to cause the program to consume excessive system resources and crash.

Exploits (1)

exploitdb WORKING POC
by Gionathan Reale · textdoswindows_x86
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45357

This PoC exploits an XML Entity Expansion (XEE) vulnerability in Nmap 7.70 (ZenMap) by using a maliciously crafted XML file with recursive entity references, leading to a denial of service (DoS) due to excessive resource consumption.

Classification
Working Poc 95%
Attack Type
Dos
Complexity
Trivial
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Nmap 7.70 (ZenMap)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: ability to load a malicious XML file into ZenMap
devstral-2 · analyzed Apr 26, 2026 Full analysis →

References (3)

Core 3
Core References
Exploit exploit
ExploitDB-45357
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45357
Product product
Product Reference
https://nmap.org/dist/nmap-7.70-setup.exe
Third Party Advisory third-party-advisory
VulnCheck Advisory: Nmap 7.70 Denial of Service via XML Entity Expansion
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nmap-denial-of-service-via-xml-entity-expansion

Scores

CVSS v3 6.2
EPSS 0.0012
EPSS Percentile 2.4%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation poc
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-674
Status published
Products (1)
ZenMap/ZenMap 7.70
Published Apr 26, 2026
Tracked Since Apr 26, 2026