Red Hat Security Advisory: libxml2 security update
Description
A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the libxml2 library's xmlXPtrEval function due to xpointer length saturation (CVE-2026-86142). This vulnerability affects Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 across multiple architectures. Red Hat has issued a security advisory with an update to address this moderate severity issue. The advisory provides updated libxml2 packages to fix the flaw.
Affected software
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Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
The libxml2 library, which implements various XML standards, contains a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the xmlXPtrEval function caused by xpointer length saturation (CVE-2026-86142). This vulnerability could potentially lead to memory corruption. Red Hat has released security updates for libxml2 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to fix this issue.
Potential Impact
The vulnerability may allow an attacker to cause memory corruption via a heap-based buffer overflow in the xmlXPtrEval function. Red Hat rates the security impact as moderate. No known exploits in the wild have been reported.
Mitigation Recommendations
Red Hat has released updated libxml2 packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 that fix this vulnerability. Users should apply the security update as described in the Red Hat advisory RHSA-2026:80675 and the referenced article https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258. No additional mitigation steps are indicated by the vendor.
Technical Details
- Gcve Source
- db.gcve.eu
- Csaf Category
- csaf_security_advisory
- Csaf Version
- 2.0
- Publisher
- Red Hat Product Security
- Advisory Id
- RHSA-2026:80675
- Cve Count
- 1
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 6ad008be2cdf04f656b91886
Added to database: 10/14/2026, 22:57:02 UTC
Last enriched: 10/14/2026, 23:06:03 UTC
Last updated: 10/14/2026, 23:48:11 UTC
Views: 7
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