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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2017-7375

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2018-02-19
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.9.4 or later.
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
A flaw in libxml2 allows remote XML entity inclusion with default parser flags (i.e., when the caller did not request entity substitution, DTD validation, external DTD subset loading, or default DTD attributes). Depending on the context, this may expose a higher-risk attack surface in libxml2 not usually reachable with default parser flags, and expose content from local files, HTTP, or FTP servers (which might be otherwise unreachable).

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-611

An XML parser processes external entity references inside untrusted documents, letting an attacker read local files, reach internal systems, or exhaust resources. It's a common trap in anything that accepts XML. The fix is to disable external entities and DTD processing in the parser.

General guidance for the xml external entity (xxe) 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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.0= 8.0= 9.0
Libxml2Framework / library
Affected:<= 2.9.4= 2.9.4
AndroidOperating system
Affected:= 4.4.4= 5.0.2= 5.1.1= 6.0= 6.0.1= 7.0= 7.1.1= 7.1.2

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.9.4
Vendor patch android.googlesource.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

libxml2 2.9.5 or later (Debian Security Advisory DSA-3867-1 addresses this and subsequent CVEs)

  1. 1. Identify the libxml2 version currently installed on the system using 'dpkg -l libxml2' (Debian) or checking Android framework libraries
  2. 2. For Debian systems: Run 'apt-get update && apt-get install libxml2' to obtain the latest available version with security patches
  3. 3. For Android: The fix is available in the commit 308396a55280f69ad4112d4f9892f4cbeff042aa - verify the Android system has the corresponding security patch applied via system update
  4. 4. After updating, verify the new libxml2 version using 'xml2-config --version'
  5. 5. Test that XML parsing functionality still works correctly with existing applications
  6. 6. If applications use libxml2 programmatically, ensure they do not enable external entity processing unless explicitly required and sanitized
Caveat Upgrading libxml2 is generally low-risk; however, applications that intentionally rely on external entity inclusion may break - review any custom XML parsing code that expects external entity support

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

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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-2017-7375 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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