CVE-2015-7942

Exp

The xmlParseConditionalSections function in parser.c in libxml2 does not properly skip intermediary entities when it stops parsing invalid input, which allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read and crash) via crafted XML data, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-7941.

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

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2015-7942 is rated High Exploit Risk (77.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.74%, 91th percentile). Core evidence: 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +3.73% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2015-7942

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2015-7942

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 1.01% 4.74% +3.73%
2 2026-05-13 1.20% 1.01% -0.19%
3 2026-05-12 1.20%

Full EPSS history (25 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2015-7942

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2015-7942

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-7942

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2015-7942 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-2015-7942
gentoo normal CVE-2015-7942: 1 GLSA(s) (201701-37), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/libxml2); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2015-7942
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-7942
suse low CVE-2015-7942 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-2015-7942/
ubuntu medium CVE-2015-7942 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libxml2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, vivid, wily): released 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2015-7942

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-7942

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
hp icewall_federation_agent 3.0 cpe:2.3:a:hp:icewall_federation_agent:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
hp icewall_file_manager 3.0 cpe:2.3:a:hp:icewall_file_manager:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple iphone_os <= 9.2.1 cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple mac_os_x <= 10.11.3 cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple tvos <= 9.1 cpe:2.3:o:apple:tvos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple watchos <= 2.1 cpe:2.3:o:apple:watchos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 15.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
xmlsoft libxml2 2.9.2 cpe:2.3:a:xmlsoft:libxml2:2.9.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2015-7942

URL Tags
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00000.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00001.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00002.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00004.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
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 Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2549.html Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2550.html Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1089.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3430 Third Party Advisory
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/bulletinapr2016-2952098.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinoct2015-2719645.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/79507
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034243
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2812-1 Third Party Advisory
http://xmlsoft.org/news.html
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=744980#c8 Exploit Issue Tracking
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=756456 Exploit Issue Tracking
https://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c04944172 Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-37
https://support.apple.com/HT206166 Vendor Advisory
https://support.apple.com/HT206167 Vendor Advisory
https://support.apple.com/HT206168 Vendor Advisory
https://support.apple.com/HT206169 Vendor Advisory
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