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LibxmlFramework / library · Xmlsoft

CVE-2008-4226

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-11-25
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Integer overflow in the xmlSAX2Characters function in libxml2 2.7.2 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a large XML document.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-399

A legacy NVD category grouping weaknesses in how resources — memory, file handles, connections — are allocated, used, and released. It gathers leaks, exhaustion, and lifecycle bugs under one label rather than naming a single flaw. The fix depends on the specific resource issue, generally pairing acquisition with release and bounding what any request can consume.

General guidance for the resource management errors class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
LibxmlFramework / library
Affected:= 2.7.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch www.debian.org →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

libxml2 2.7.3 or later (vendor-supplied security patch equivalent)

  1. Identify all applications and systems using libxml2 2.7.2 in your environment
  2. For Debian/Ubuntu systems: run 'apt-get update && apt-get install libxml2' to obtain the latest available patched version
  3. For Red Hat/Fedora systems: run 'yum update libxml2' or 'dnf update libxml2'
  4. For Apple macOS: apply the corresponding security update from Apple (see references)
  5. For other platforms: obtain libxml2 version 2.7.3 or later from your vendor or from https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/releases
  6. Restart any services that use libxml2 after applying the update
  7. Verify the installed version using 'xml2-config --version' or 'dpkg -l | grep libxml2'
Caveat Minimal risk - this is a security patch update; however, test critical XML parsing workflows before deploying to production

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can apply and verify the patch for your build — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the patch applied

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-4226 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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