Stack Overflow Vulnerability in Expat Library Affecting XML Parsing

CVE-2024-8176

Summary

A stack overflow vulnerability has been identified in the libexpat library, primarily concerning its recursive entity expansion handling in XML documents. When processing XML files with a high degree of nested entity references, libexpat is susceptible to infinite recursion, ultimately leading to stack exhaustion. This behavior could result in denial of service conditions or potential memory corruption, which may vary based on the environment and implementation of the library. Users are urged to review their configurations and apply necessary patches to mitigate these risks.

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