Service crash via recursive entity expansion
Published Mar 14, 2025 · Updated Jun 29, 2026
Uncontrolled recursion in Expat libexpat before 2.7.0 allows remote attackers to crash XML-processing applications with crafted XML. Entity resolution recursively follows long chains of general entities in content or attributes and parameter entities until the process stack is exhausted. Exposure requires an application to parse attacker-controlled XML with entity processing enabled; the demonstrated consequence is a reliable crash.
Summary
What happened
Uncontrolled recursion in Expat libexpat before 2.7.0 allows remote attackers to crash XML-processing applications with crafted XML. Entity resolution recursively follows long chains of general entities in content or attributes and parameter entities until the process stack is exhausted. Exposure requires an application to parse attacker-controlled XML with entity processing enabled; the demonstrated consequence is a reliable crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-8176
- Published
- Mar 14, 2025
- Updated
- Jun 29, 2026
- Vendor
- 389 Directory Server
- Product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Update Services for SAP Solutions
- Classifications
- CWE-674, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 14, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jun 29, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Affected versions are unavailable in this record. Check the vendor advisory for version and patch details.
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Upstream parameterized entity-chain payload generatorsfunctional · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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