CVE-2026-11979

HIGH

Stack-Based Buffer Overflow in libxml2

Title source: cna
STIX 2.1

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

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