Vulnerability · Published Jan 15, 2026 · Assigned by redhat
CVE-2026-0990Libxml2: libxml2: denial of service via uncontrolled recursion in xml catalog processing
Medium 5.9
In plain English
A medium-severity security flaw in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 from Red Hat. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 1.0% (higher than 62% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
A flaw was found in libxml2, an XML parsing library. This uncontrolled recursion vulnerability occurs in the xmlCatalogXMLResolveURI function when an XML catalog contains a delegate URI entry that references itself. A remote attacker could exploit this configuration-dependent issue by providing a specially crafted XML catalog, leading to infinite recursion and call stack exhaustion. This ultimately results in a segmentation fault, causing a Denial of Service (DoS) by crashing affected applications.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | libxml2 | 2.9.14+dfsg-1.3~deb12u6 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-0990 |
| Debian:13 | libxml2 | 2.12.7+dfsg+really2.9.14-2.1+deb13u3 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-0990 |
| Debian:14 | libxml2 | 2.15.2+dfsg-0.1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-0990 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | libxml2 | 2.9.13+dfsg-1ubuntu0.11 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-0990 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | libxml2 | 2.9.14+dfsg-1.3ubuntu3.7 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-0990 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | libxml2 | 2.14.5+dfsg-0.2ubuntu0.1 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-0990 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat | Red Hat Hardened Images | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat JBoss Core Services | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | see references |
Weakness: CWE-674 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
References
- RHSA-2026:7519 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-0990 vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2429959 issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/issues/1018