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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2018-14404

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2018-07-19
  • WeaknessCWE-476

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability exists in the xpath.c:xmlXPathCompOpEval() function of libxml2 through 2.9.8 when parsing an invalid XPath expression in the XPATH_OP_AND or XPATH_OP_OR case. Applications processing untrusted XSL format inputs with the use of the libxml2 library may be vulnerable to a denial of service attack due to a crash of the application.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2018-07-1913:29CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Canonical ubuntu linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
12.4= 12.04no fix published
14.4= 14.04no fix published
16.4= 16.04no fix published
18.4= 18.04no fix published
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
—all versionsno fix published
Xmlsoft libxml2
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.9≤ 2.9.8no fix published

1 more product in the sources.

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • cockpit-ovirtRed Hat:enterprise_linux:7::hypervisorall versions · fixed in 0:0.13.10-1.el7evand 1 other package
  • libxml2Ubuntu:18.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2.9.4+dfsg1-6.1ubuntu1.2
  • libxml2Ubuntu:16.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2.9.3+dfsg1-1ubuntu0.6
  • libxml2Ubuntu:14.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2.9.1+dfsg1-3ubuntu4.13
  • libxml2TuxCare:OracleLinux:6all versions · fixed in 2.7.6-21.0.1.el6_8.1.tuxcare.ol.els16and 3 other packages
  • libxml2TuxCare:CentOS:6all versions · fixed in 2.7.6-21.el6_8.1.tuxcare.els14and 3 other packages
  • libxml2SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP3all versions · fixed in 2.9.4-46.15.1
  • libxml2SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 11 SP4all versions · fixed in 2.7.6-0.77.15.1

52 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2018-14404 Red Hat Product Security135 products fixed · 9 known affected

    libxml2: NULL pointer dereference in xmlXPathCompOpEval() function in xpath.c

    libxml2.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 · libxml2 as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · libxml2-devel as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · +6 more

  • RHSA-2020:1827 Red Hat Product Security45 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: libxml2 security update

  • RHBA-2020:1539 Red Hat Product Security1 product fixed

    Red Hat Bug Fix Advisory: Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.5.6-1 - RHEL7 Container

  • RHBA-2020:1540 Red Hat Product Security1 product fixed

    Red Hat Bug Fix Advisory: Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.6.4-1 - RHEL7 Container

  • RHBA-2020:1310 Red Hat Product Security11 products fixed

    Red Hat Bug Fix Advisory: Red Hat Virtualization Host (redhat-virtualization-host) 4.3.9 async

  • RHSA-2020:1190 Red Hat Product Security76 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: libxml2 security update

1 more advisory

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2020:1827 · 45 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258 The desktop must be restarted (log out, then log back in) for this update to take effect.
  2. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHBA-2020:1539 · 1 productFor information on upgrading Ansible Tower, reference the Ansible Tower Upgrade and Migration Guide: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-tower/latest/html/upgrade-migration-guide/index.html
  3. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHBA-2020:1310 · 11 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/2974891
  4. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2019:1543 · 1 productThe References section of this erratum contains a download link (you must log in to download the update). Before applying the update, back up your existing Red Hat JBoss Core Services installation (including all applications and configuration files).
  5. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2018-14404 · 9 productsWill not fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2018-07-19
Last Modified
2026-10-14
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-6qvp-r6r3-9p7h

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-14404?

A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability exists in the xpath.c:xmlXPathCompOpEval() function of libxml2 through 2.9.8 when parsing an invalid XPath expression in the XPATH_OP_AND or XPATH_OP_OR case. Applications processing untrusted XSL format inputs with the use of the libxml2 library may be vulnerable to a denial of service attack due to a crash of the application.

Is CVE-2018-14404 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2018-14404 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 3.7% on 2026-11-08, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2018-14404?

CVE-2018-14404 has a CVSS v3 base score of 6.5 (MEDIUM severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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