CVE-2026-77214 PUBLISHED

libexpat Heap Buffer Over-read in xmlparse.c via XML_ParseBuffer

Assigner: VulnCheck
Reserved: 20.08.2026 Published: 07.10.2026 Updated: 07.10.2026

libexpat before commit 13c5f63 contains a heap buffer over-read vulnerability in xmlparse.c. XML_ParseBuffer advances the parse buffer end with parser->m_bufferEnd += len using a caller-supplied length that is not validated against the allocated buffer size, so repeated XML_ParseBuffer calls move m_bufferEnd past the end of the heap allocation and subsequent parsing reads out of bounds. Reaching this path requires a parse buffer to already be present; otherwise XML_ParseBuffer returns XML_ERROR_NO_BUFFER. A buffer is present after a prior call to XML_GetBuffer, either directly (the common case) or indirectly through a prior XML_Parse call that allocates the buffer internally. The over-read discloses adjacent heap memory to the calling application, recovering heap pointers, libc function pointers, and code pointers sufficient to defeat ASLR and build further exploitation primitives.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS Score: 8.3

Product Status

Vendor libexpat
Product libexpat
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0 to 2.8.5 (incl.)
  • Version 13c5f63a7f1c52c2feee3b16a1134d4fb68e9ea0 is unaffected

Credits

  • Fabian Wahle (Hap Security) finder
  • Filippo Tedeschi finder
  • VulnCheck coordinator

References

Problem Types

  • Out-of-bounds Read CWE