CVE-2026-0992: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in Red Hat Red Hat Hardened Images
A flaw was found in the libxml2 library. This uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability occurs when processing XML catalogs that contain repeated <nextCatalog> elements pointing to the same downstream catalog. A remote attacker can exploit this by supplying crafted catalogs, causing the parser to redundantly traverse catalog chains. This leads to excessive CPU consumption and degrades application availability, resulting in a denial-of-service condition.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
This vulnerability in libxml2 arises from the parser redundantly traversing catalog chains when XML catalogs contain repeated <nextCatalog> elements pointing to the same downstream catalog. This leads to uncontrolled resource consumption, specifically excessive CPU usage, degrading application availability and causing denial-of-service. The issue affects Red Hat Hardened Images and is tracked as CVE-2026-0992 with a CVSS score of 2.9 (low severity). Red Hat has issued an update to libxml2 RPM packages to remediate this flaw.
Potential Impact
The impact is limited to availability degradation due to excessive CPU consumption during XML catalog processing. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity. No known exploits are reported in the wild, and the vulnerability requires local access with high attack complexity and no privileges, limiting its practical exploitation.
Mitigation Recommendations
Red Hat has released updated libxml2 RPM packages as part of a security advisory (RHSA-2026:7519) that address this vulnerability. Users of Red Hat Hardened Images should apply these official updates to remediate the issue. Patch status is confirmed by the vendor advisory. No additional mitigation actions are indicated.
CVE-2026-0992: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in Red Hat Red Hat Hardened Images
Description
A flaw was found in the libxml2 library. This uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability occurs when processing XML catalogs that contain repeated <nextCatalog> elements pointing to the same downstream catalog. A remote attacker can exploit this by supplying crafted catalogs, causing the parser to redundantly traverse catalog chains. This leads to excessive CPU consumption and degrades application availability, resulting in a denial-of-service condition.
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
This vulnerability in libxml2 arises from the parser redundantly traversing catalog chains when XML catalogs contain repeated <nextCatalog> elements pointing to the same downstream catalog. This leads to uncontrolled resource consumption, specifically excessive CPU usage, degrading application availability and causing denial-of-service. The issue affects Red Hat Hardened Images and is tracked as CVE-2026-0992 with a CVSS score of 2.9 (low severity). Red Hat has issued an update to libxml2 RPM packages to remediate this flaw.
Potential Impact
The impact is limited to availability degradation due to excessive CPU consumption during XML catalog processing. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity. No known exploits are reported in the wild, and the vulnerability requires local access with high attack complexity and no privileges, limiting its practical exploitation.
Mitigation Recommendations
Red Hat has released updated libxml2 RPM packages as part of a security advisory (RHSA-2026:7519) that address this vulnerability. Users of Red Hat Hardened Images should apply these official updates to remediate the issue. Patch status is confirmed by the vendor advisory. No additional mitigation actions are indicated.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- redhat
- Date Reserved
- 2026-01-15T13:34:08.872Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Vendor Advisory Urls
- [{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:7519","vendor":"Red Hat"},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-0992","vendor":"Red Hat"}]
Threat ID: 6968faa94c611209ad23897a
Added to database: 1/15/2026, 2:33:13 PM
Last enriched: 4/24/2026, 3:54:10 PM
Last updated: 5/9/2026, 8:48:32 PM
Views: 78
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