Description
libxml2 is vulnerable to multiple stack-based buffer overflows in the xmlcatalog utility when running in --shell mode. The usershell() function processes user input using fixed-size stack buffers without proper bounds checking. By supplying an overly long input line, an attacker can overflow internal buffers (command, arg, and argv) during input parsing. This results in memory corruption within the stack frame. Successful exploitation may cause a crash or potentially allow arbitrary code execution in the context of the xmlcatalog process. This issue has been fixed in the commit c2e233fc. NOTE: The maintainers of this project did not agree that this issue is a vulnerability and considered it a bug.
References (2)
Core 2
Core References
Third Party Advisory third-party-advisory
https://cert.pl/en/posts/2026/06/CVE-2026-11979
Scores
CVSS v3
7.8
EPSS
0.0015
EPSS Percentile
4.5%
Attack Vector
LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CISA SSVC
Vulnrichment
Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical Impact
partial
Details
CWE
CWE-121
Status
published
Products (1)
xmlsoft/libxml2
< 2.15.3 (2 CPE variants)
Published
Jun 29, 2026
Tracked Since
Jun 29, 2026