Availability degradation via exponential XML catalog traversal
Published Jan 15, 2026 · Updated Jan 15, 2026
Uncontrolled resource consumption in libxml2 before 2.15.2 allows attackers to exhaust CPU time via crafted XML catalogs. The catalog resolver revisits the same downstream catalog for every repeated entry, causing traversal time to grow exponentially with chain depth. Exploitation requires an application to process attacker-controlled catalogs; the resulting CPU saturation degrades availability without reported data access or modification.
Summary
What happened
Uncontrolled resource consumption in libxml2 before 2.15.2 allows attackers to exhaust CPU time via crafted XML catalogs. The catalog resolver revisits the same downstream catalog for every repeated entry, causing traversal time to grow exponentially with chain depth. Exploitation requires an application to process attacker-controlled catalogs; the resulting CPU saturation degrades availability without reported data access or modification.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-0992
- Published
- Jan 15, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 15, 2026
- Vendor
- 389 Directory Server
- Product
- Red Hat JBoss Core Services
- Classifications
- CWE-400, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 15, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 15, 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 XML catalog denial-of-service reproducerproof of concept · unverified
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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