libexpat: libexpat stack overflow (CVE-2024-8176) #shorts

Summary

In today's podcast, we dive into a critical security issue affecting Red Hat products through the commonly used libexpat library. Recognized as CVE-2024-8176, this vulnerability could potentially lead to severe consequences if left unaddressed. Stay tuned as we unpack the details and discuss how to protect your systems.

Product details

The libexpat library is widely utilized for parsing XML documents across various software. The affected products include Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 6, 7, 8, and 9, as well as Red Hat JBoss Core Services and the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4. These products rely on libexpat for processing XML data.

Vulnerability type summary

The vulnerability type is classified as 'Uncontrolled Recursion,' which may result in a stack overflow when processing XML documents with multiple nested entities. This can potentially lead to software crashes or exploitable memory corruption issues, posing a threat to system stability and security.

Details of the vulnerability

CVE-2024-8176 is a stack overflow vulnerability occurring in the libexpat library due to its handling of recursive entity expansion in XML documents. An attacker could craft XML documents with deeply nested entities, causing libexpat to endlessly recurse and exhaust stack memory, resulting in a denial of service or, in certain circumstances, memory corruption vulnerabilities that could be exploited depending on how the library is used.

Conclusion

To mitigate the risks posed by CVE-2024-8176, it is crucial to update libexpat to the latest version, which includes necessary security patches. Expat 2.7.0 has been released, addressing this vulnerability and enhancing the overall security posture. Organizations using affected Red Hat products should prioritize implementing these updates. Staying informed and proactive about such vulnerabilities is key to safeguarding your systems against potential threats.

Watch the full video on YouTube: CVE-2024-8176

Remediation and exploitation details

This chain involves the following actors

This following systems are involved

Attack entry point

Remediation actions

Exploitation actions

CVE database technical details

CVE ID

CVE-2024-8176

Description

A stack overflow vulnerability exists in the libexpat library due to the way it handles recursive entity expansion in XML documents. When parsing an XML document with deeply nested entity references, libexpat can be forced to recurse indefinitely, exhausting the stack space and causing a crash. This issue could lead to denial of service (DoS) or, in some cases, exploitable memory corruption, depending on the environment and library usage.

Provider

redhat

CWE / problem types

Uncontrolled Recursion

Affected Software Versions

None:None:[{'status': 'affected', 'version': '0', 'lessThan': '2.7.0', 'versionType': 'semver'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:[{'version': '0:2.2.5-17.el8_10', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:[{'version': '0:1.51.0-11.el8_10', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Support:[{'version': '0:1.51.0-5.el8_2.2', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support:[{'version': '0:1.51.0-5.el8_4.2', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service:[{'version': '0:1.51.0-5.el8_4.2', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions:[{'version': '0:1.51.0-5.el8_4.2', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support:[{'version': '0:1.51.0-6.el8_6.1', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Telecommunications Update Service:[{'version': '0:1.51.0-6.el8_6.1', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Update Services for SAP Solutions:[{'version': '0:1.51.0-6.el8_6.1', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support:[{'version': '0:1.51.0-8.el8_8.1', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:[{'version': '0:2.5.0-3.el9_5.3', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:[{'version': '0:2.5.0-3.el9_5.3', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:DevWorkspace Operator 0.33:[{'version': 'sha256:b41c498da32fde3fa636594ef93d2206ca1a3bc306e401eaae035dc18d30654a', 'lessThan': '*', 'versionType': 'rpm', 'status': 'unaffected'}],Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:None,Red Hat:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:None,Red Hat:Red Hat JBoss Core Services:None,Red Hat:Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4:None

Date Published

2025-03-14T08:19:48.962Z

Last Updated

2025-05-12T05:04:47.179Z