libxml2 vulnerability

Related Vulnerabilities: CVE-2017-16932  

libxml2 could be made to crash if it opened a specially crafted file.

Wei Lei discovered that libxml2 incorrecty handled certain parameter entities. An attacker could use this issue with specially constructed XML data to cause libxml2 to consume resources, leading to a denial of service.

5 December 2017

libxml2 vulnerability

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

  • Ubuntu 17.10
  • Ubuntu 17.04
  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Summary

libxml2 could be made to crash if it opened a specially crafted file.

Software Description

  • libxml2 - GNOME XML library

Details

Wei Lei discovered that libxml2 incorrecty handled certain parameter entities. An attacker could use this issue with specially constructed XML data to cause libxml2 to consume resources, leading to a denial of service.

Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 17.10
libxml2 - 2.9.4+dfsg1-4ubuntu1.1
libxml2-utils - 2.9.4+dfsg1-4ubuntu1.1
python-libxml2 - 2.9.4+dfsg1-4ubuntu1.1
python3-libxml2 - 2.9.4+dfsg1-4ubuntu1.1
Ubuntu 17.04
libxml2 - 2.9.4+dfsg1-2.2ubuntu0.2
libxml2-utils - 2.9.4+dfsg1-2.2ubuntu0.2
python-libxml2 - 2.9.4+dfsg1-2.2ubuntu0.2
python3-libxml2 - 2.9.4+dfsg1-2.2ubuntu0.2
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
libxml2 - 2.9.3+dfsg1-1ubuntu0.4
libxml2-utils - 2.9.3+dfsg1-1ubuntu0.4
python-libxml2 - 2.9.3+dfsg1-1ubuntu0.4
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
libxml2 - 2.9.1+dfsg1-3ubuntu4.11
libxml2-utils - 2.9.1+dfsg1-3ubuntu4.11
python-libxml2 - 2.9.1+dfsg1-3ubuntu4.11

To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References