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CVE Record

CVE-2025-49796: Libxml: type confusion leads to denial of service (dos)

A vulnerability was found in libxml2. Processing certain sch:name elements from the input XML file can trigger a memory corruption issue. This flaw allows an attacker to craft a malicious XML input file that can lead libxml to crash, resulting in a denial of service or other possible undefined behavior due to sensitive data being corrupted in memory.

CriticalCVSS 9.1Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysiscritical

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2025-49796 is a critical libxml2 flaw where malicious XML can corrupt memory and crash software that parses it. Business risk is highest for services that accept XML from users, partners, or networks. The provided sources do not show active exploitation, but Red Hat lists multiple affected enterprise platforms and advisories.

Executive priority

Treat as high-priority patch management for XML-processing workloads, especially exposed services. It is critical by CVSS and broadly present in enterprise Linux, but urgency should be balanced by the lack of cited active exploitation evidence.

Technical view

The issue involves processing certain sch:name XML elements, triggering memory corruption described as type confusion and mapped to CWE-125. CVSS 3.1 is 9.1: network reachable, low complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, with high integrity and availability impact and no confidentiality impact.

Likely exposure

Exposure depends on whether affected libxml2 packages are installed and used to parse untrusted XML. The bundle lists affected Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 ELS, 8, 9, 10 variants, and OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 rhcos. Red Hat JBoss Core Services 2.4.62.SP2 is listed as unaffected.

Exploitation context

No KEV listing or cited source in the bundle indicates active exploitation. Exploitation would require a target application or service to process attacker-controlled XML through affected libxml2. The likely immediate outcome is denial of service, with undefined behavior possible from corrupted memory.

Researcher notes

The source bundle gives Red Hat package impact and CVSS detail but limited root-cause depth. It names sch:name processing and memory corruption, but does not provide a public exploit, patch commit, or upstream version mapping. Avoid assuming impact for products not listed or independently confirmed.

Mitigation direction

  • Review the relevant Red Hat RHSA advisory for each deployed platform.
  • Apply vendor-provided libxml2 or platform updates when available.
  • Prioritize internet-facing or partner-facing services that parse XML.
  • Update container base images using affected Red Hat packages.
  • Check vendor guidance for non-Red Hat distributions or embedded libxml2 copies.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory systems and containers for libxml2 package versions.
  • Compare installed versions against the affected versions listed in the CVE bundle.
  • Confirm applicable RHSA updates are installed on RHEL and OpenShift nodes.
  • Identify applications that accept untrusted XML input.
  • Monitor crash logs for XML parsing failures in exposed services.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
12

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

cwe · low confidence lookup

CWE-125: Exact CWE lookup

Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
description · low confidence lookup

Container behavior lookup

The affected technology mentions containers, so container-specific ATT&CK technique review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2025-49796 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.1 (3.1)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

1CVSS vectors
5Timeline events
3ADP providers
34Source links

SSVC decision data

CISA-ADPCISA Coordinator
Timestamp
Version
2.0.3
Exploitation: noneAutomatable: yesTechnical Impact: partial

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
9.1CVSS 3.1CriticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H3.95.2redhat

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

9.1Critical
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2025-49796Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Vulnerability timeline

Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.

  1. CVE reservedCVE Program

    The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.

  2. Source timelineredhat

    Made public.

  3. Source timelineredhat

    Reported to Red Hat.

  4. CVE publishedCVE Program

    The CVE record was published.

  5. CVE updatedCVE Program

    The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.

ADP provider summaries

CISA-ADPCISA ADP Vulnrichment
other:ssvc
CVECVE Program Container
siemens-SADPADP container

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
Unknown vendorlibxml2libxml2, 0unaffected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10libxml2, 0:2.12.5-7.el10_0affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Supportlibxml2, 0:2.9.1-6.el7_9.10affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8libxml2, 0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.1affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8libxml2, 0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.1affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Supportlibxml2, 0:2.9.7-9.el8_2.3affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Supportlibxml2, 0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.6affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Extended Update Support Long-Life Add-Onlibxml2, 0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.6affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Supportlibxml2, 0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.10affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Telecommunications Update Servicelibxml2, 0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.10affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Update Services for SAP Solutionslibxml2, 0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.10affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Telecommunications Update Servicelibxml2, 0:2.9.7-16.el8_8.9affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Update Services for SAP Solutionslibxml2, 0:2.9.7-16.el8_8.9affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9libxml2, 0:2.9.13-10.el9_6affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9libxml2, 0:2.9.13-10.el9_6affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Update Services for SAP Solutionslibxml2, 0:2.9.13-1.el9_0.5affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Update Services for SAP Solutionslibxml2, 0:2.9.13-3.el9_2.7affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Extended Update Supportlibxml2, 0:2.9.13-10.el9_4affected
Red HatRed Hat JBoss Core Services 2.4.62.SP2libxml2unaffected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12rhcos, 412.86.202510291903-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13rhcos, 413.92.202510150118-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14rhcos, 414.92.202510211419-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17rhcos, 417.94.202510112152-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.18rhcos, 418.94.202510230424-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.19rhcos, 4.19.9.6.202510140714-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.20rhcos, 4.20.9.6.202509251656-0affected
Red HatRed Hat Web Terminal 1.11 on RHEL 9web-terminal/web-terminal-rhel9-operator, 1.11-19affected
Red HatRed Hat Web Terminal 1.11 on RHEL 9web-terminal/web-terminal-tooling-rhel9, 1.11-8affected
Red HatRed Hat Web Terminal 1.12 on RHEL 9web-terminal/web-terminal-tooling-rhel9, 1.12-4affected
Red HatRHOSS-1.36-RHEL-8openshift-serverless-1/logic-data-index-ephemeral-rhel8, 1.36.0-11affected
Weakness

CWE details

CWE-125

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.

CWE-125 · source CWE mapping

Out-of-bounds Read

Out-of-bounds Read represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.

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