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CVE-2008-3281

18
FAUCET Score

CVE-2008-3281 is a denial-of-service vulnerability affecting libxml2 versions 2.6.32 and earlier, impacting various products including Apple, Debian, and Red Hat. This flaw allows attackers to consume excessive memory and CPU resources by submitting a specially crafted XML document that exploits improper recursion detection during entity expansion in attribute values. Rated as Medium severity (CVSS 6.5), it requires user interaction (UI:R) but can be exploited remotely over the network (AV:N). There is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 2.6.32CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:xmlsoft:libxml2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
< 4.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apple:safari:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 1.0.0, < 3.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
9CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
6.06CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:6.06:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

6.5MEDIUM

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

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
NONE
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
2.8
Impact Score
3.6
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
2.51%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
83.1%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0251 is in the 92nd percentile among its peer group of 26,221 CVEs.

Social Chatter

No social media mentions found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.1 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (4)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1Fixed in: libxml2-0:2.4.19-9.ent
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3Fixed in: libxml2-0:2.5.10-11
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4Fixed in: libxml2-0:2.6.16-12.3
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: libxml2-0:2.6.26-2.1.2.4
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2008-3281Moderate

libxml2 denial of service

Aug 20, 2008

References

lists.apple.com / archives/security-announce/2009/jun/msg00002.html
Broken LinkMailing List
lists.apple.com / archives/security-announce/2009/Jun/msg00005.html
Mailing List
lists.opensuse.org / opensuse-security-announce/2008-09/msg00004.html
Mailing List
lists.vmware.com / pipermail/security-announce/2008/000039.html
Broken Link
mail.gnome.org / archives/xml/2008-August/msg00034.html
Mailing ListPatch
bugzilla.redhat.com / show_bug.cgi
Issue Tracking
secunia.com / advisories/31558
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/31566
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/31590
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/31728
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/31748
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/31855
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/31982
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/32488
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/32807
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/32974
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/35379
Broken Link
security.gentoo.org / glsa/glsa-200812-06.xml
Third Party Advisory
oval.cisecurity.org / repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A6496
Broken Link
oval.cisecurity.org / repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A9812
Broken Link
rhn.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2008-0836.html
Third Party Advisory
support.apple.com / kb/HT3613
Third Party Advisory
support.apple.com / kb/HT3639
Third Party Advisory
usn.ubuntu.com / 644-1
Broken Link
svn.gnome.org / viewvc/libxml2
Broken Link
redhat.com / archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-September/msg00261.html
Mailing List
redhat.com / archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-September/msg00347.html
Mailing List
wiki.rpath.com / Advisories:rPSA-2008-0325
Broken Link
debian.org / security/2008/dsa-1631
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
mandriva.com / security/advisories
Broken Link
mandriva.com / security/advisories
Broken Link
securityfocus.com / archive/1/497962/100/0/threaded
Broken LinkThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
securityfocus.com / bid/30783
Broken LinkPatchThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
securitytracker.com / id
Broken LinkThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
ubuntu.com / usn/usn-640-1
Third Party Advisory
vmware.com / security/advisories/VMSA-2008-0017.html
Third Party Advisory
vupen.com / english/advisories/2008/2419
Broken Link
vupen.com / english/advisories/2008/2843
Broken Link
vupen.com / english/advisories/2008/2971
Broken Link
vupen.com / english/advisories/2009/1522
Broken Link
vupen.com / english/advisories/2009/1621
Broken Link
xmlsoft.org / news.html
Release Notes