Denial of service via orphaned XML text nodes
Published Sep 24, 2026 · Updated Sep 24, 2026
Memory leak in Mini-XML 4.0.5 allows attackers to exhaust process memory by repeatedly parsing specially crafted malformed XML. In mxml_load_data(), text nodes allocated by mxmlNewText() can remain unlinked when a parse error jumps to cleanup, so neither the orphaned node nor its copied string is released. Exploitation requires a long-running consuming application to parse attacker-controlled malformed XML repeatedly; cumulative leakage can interrupt that service.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in Mini-XML 4.0.5 allows attackers to exhaust process memory by repeatedly parsing specially crafted malformed XML. In mxml_load_data(), text nodes allocated by mxmlNewText() can remain unlinked when a parse error jumps to cleanup, so neither the orphaned node nor its copied string is released. Exploitation requires a long-running consuming application to parse attacker-controlled malformed XML repeatedly; cumulative leakage can interrupt that service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-88385
- Published
- Sep 24, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 24, 2026
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499
- Attack vector
- Unavailable
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 24, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 24, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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What is affected?
Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.
Published CVSS scores
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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.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Mini-XML 4.0.5 malformed XML leak reproducerproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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