CVE-2015-7941

libxml2 2.9.2 does not properly stop parsing invalid input, which allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read and libxml2 crash) via crafted XML data to the (1) xmlParseEntityDecl or (2) xmlParseConditionalSections function in parser.c, as demonstrated by non-terminated entities.

Published: 2015-11-18 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2015-7941 is rated Moderate Risk (49.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.07%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +2.63% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2015-7941

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.43% 3.07% +2.63%
2 2026-05-13 0.52% 0.43% -0.08%
3 2026-05-12 0.52%

Full EPSS history (21 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2015-7941

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2015-7941

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-7941

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2015-7941 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libxml2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2015-7941
gentoo normal CVE-2015-7941: 1 GLSA(s) (201701-37), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/libxml2); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2015-7941
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-7941
suse low CVE-2015-7941 severity low: SUSE including 370 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 524 product×package rows across 72 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Liberty Linux 7, … (72 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Fixed 220, Known Not Affected 73. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-7941/
ubuntu medium CVE-2015-7941 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libxml2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, vivid, wily): released 4, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2015-7941

NVD evaluator notes for CVE-2015-7941

Comment: "context dependent" seems to point to MiTM attack due to: If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a specially crafted document, an attacker could possibly cause libxml2 to crash, resulting in a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 15.04.

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-7941

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 15.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
xmlsoft libxml2 2.9.2 cpe:2.3:a:xmlsoft:libxml2:2.9.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2015-7941

URL Tags
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-February/177341.html
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-February/177381.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-12/msg00120.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-01/msg00031.html
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=145382616617563&w=2
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2549.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2550.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1089.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3430
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/10/22/5
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/10/22/8
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjan2016-2867206.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinoct2015-2719645.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/74241
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034243
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2812-1
http://xmlsoft.org/news.html
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=744980
https://git.gnome.org/browse/libxml2/commit/?id=9b8512337d14c8ddf662fcb98b0135f225a1c489
https://git.gnome.org/browse/libxml2/commit/?id=a7dfab7411cbf545f359dd3157e5df1eb0e7ce31
https://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c04944172
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-37
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