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CVE-2026-66046VulnerabilityPublished Updated

Red Hat Security Advisory: expat security update

Affects Red Hat expatSource GCVE Database

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Mentioned vulnerabilities

Authoritative record:CVE-2026-66046· High 8.7

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.7 High · fixed in Red Hat package updates : patch the Ubuntu expat package soon.

Data as of 12 Nov 2026, 23:24 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
8.7High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none
CVSS scores by source
CNA (VulnCheck)CVSS 4.08.7
CNA (VulnCheck)CVSS 3.17.5
EPSS
0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 59% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 2.1.0-4ubuntu1.4+esm13, 2.1.0-7ubuntu0.16.04.5+esm14, 2.2.5-3ubuntu0.9+esm5 +4
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 18 Aug 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: 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 13 Nov 2026.

What to do

Upgrade to a fixed release listed under Affected software.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Red Hatredhat/expatpkg:rpm/redhat/expatOther threatsAffected
  • >=8.0.0 <=8.10
Fixed in–
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTScoin3pkg:deb/ubuntu/coin3?arch=source&distro=esm-infra-legacy/trustyOther threatsAffected
  • 3.1.4~abc9f50-3 – 3.1.4~abc9f50-4ubuntu2+esm2
5 affected builds
Fixed in–
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTSexpatpkg:deb/ubuntu/expat?arch=source&distro=esm-infra-legacy/trustyOther threatsAffected
  • <2.1.0-4ubuntu1.4+esm13
Fixed in
  • 2.1.0-4ubuntu1.4+esm13
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTSvnc4pkg:deb/ubuntu/vnc4?arch=source&distro=esm-infra-legacy/trustyOther threatsAffected
  • 4.1.1+xorg4.3.0-37ubuntu5 – 4.1.1+xorg4.3.0-37ubuntu5.0.2+esm1
4 affected builds
Fixed in–
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTSvtkpkg:deb/ubuntu/vtk?arch=source&distro=esm-infra-legacy/trustyOther threatsAffected
  • 5.8.0-14.1ubuntu2 – 5.8.0-14ubuntu3
5 affected builds
Fixed in–
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTSxmlrpc-cpkg:deb/ubuntu/xmlrpc-c?arch=source&distro=esm-infra-legacy/trustyOther threatsAffected
  • =1.16.33-3.2ubuntu3
  • =1.33.06-0ubuntu1
  • =1.33.06-0ubuntu1+esm1
Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

A patch is available and should be applied. Red Hat has released updated expat packages for affected Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 versions and architectures. Users should follow the official Red Hat update instructions to apply these fixes. No additional mitigation is required beyond applying the official update.

Description

This advisory addresses two important vulnerabilities in the Expat XML parsing library used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and related distributions. The first vulnerability (CVE-2026-66046) is a denial of service caused by quadratic complexity in attribute processing. The second (CVE-2026-93990) is an XML injection vulnerability via malformed UTF-16 input. Updated packages fixing these issues are available for multiple architectures including x86_64, s390x, ppc64le, and aarch64.

References

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