CVE-2008-3281

Publication date 27 August 2008

Last updated 25 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Medium

Why this priority?

Cvss 3 Severity Score

6.5 · Medium

Score breakdown

Description

libxml2 2.6.32 and earlier does not properly detect recursion during entity expansion in an attribute value, which allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (memory and CPU consumption) via a crafted XML document.

Read the notes from the security team

Status

Package Ubuntu Release Status
libxml2 8.04 LTS hardy
Fixed 2.6.31.dfsg-2ubuntu1.1
7.10 gutsy
Fixed 2.6.30.dfsg-2ubuntu1.2
7.04 feisty
Fixed 2.6.27.dfsg-1ubuntu3.2
6.06 LTS dapper
Fixed 2.6.24.dfsg-1ubuntu1.2

Notes

kees

earlier patches broke ABI (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=459830) USN-644-1 updates this fix to match upstream patches.

Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package Patch details
libxml2

Severity score breakdown

Parameter Value
Base score 6.5 · Medium
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction Required
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality None
Integrity impact None
Availability impact High
Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References

Related Ubuntu Security Notices (USN)

    • USN-640-1
    • libxml2 vulnerability
    • 3 September 2008
    • USN-644-1
    • libxml2 vulnerabilities
    • 11 September 2008

Other references