Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2018-14404

A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability exists in the xpath.c:xmlXPathCompOpEval() function of libxml2 through 2.9.8 when parsing an invalid XPath expression in the XPATH_OP_AND or XPATH_OP_OR case. Applications processing untrusted XSL format inputs with the use of the libxml2 library may be vulnerable to a denial of service attack due to a crash of the application.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 6.5, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity though user interaction is required and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 3 products from canonical, from debian, from xmlsoft organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2018, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2018-07-19T13:29:00.480

Last Modified

2025-12-03T21:15:48.723

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 6.5 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: NONE
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: PARTIAL

Exploitability Score

10.0

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-476
Type: Secondary
CWE-476

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	12.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	14.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	18.04	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	-	Yes
Application	xmlsoft	libxml2	≤ 2.9.8	Yes

References

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:1543 ([email protected])
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=901817 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1595985 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/issues/10 Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/09/msg00035.html ([email protected])
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/09/msg00009.html ([email protected])
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190719-0002/ ([email protected])
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3739-1/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3739-2/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:1543 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=901817 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1595985 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/issues/10 Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/09/msg00035.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/09/msg00009.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190719-0002/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3739-1/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3739-2/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For canonical's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.