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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-8732: libxml2 · Uncontrolled Recursion

Affects libxml2Source CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.8 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 08:30 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
4.8Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 11% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 8 Aug 2025

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
libxml2Affected
  • =2.14.0
  • =2.14.1
  • =2.14.2
  • =2.14.3
  • =2.14.4
  • =2.14.5
Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Given the maintainer's comments, the risk is mitigated by avoiding the use of untrusted SGML catalogs.

Description

A vulnerability was found in libxml2 up to 2.14.5. It has been declared as problematic. This vulnerability affects the function xmlParseSGMLCatalog of the component xmlcatalog. The manipulation leads to uncontrolled recursion. Attacking locally is a requirement. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The real existence of this vulnerability is still doubted at the moment. The code maintainer explains, that "[t]he issue can only be triggered with untrusted SGML catalogs and it makes absolutely no sense to use untrusted catalogs. I also doubt that anyone is still using SGML catalogs at all."

References

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