CVE-2017-16932

parser.c in libxml2 before 2.9.5 does not prevent infinite recursion in parameter entities.

Published: 2017-11-23 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-16932 is rated Moderate Risk (57.3/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 5.93%, 92th percentile). EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize 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-2017-16932

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 21.75% 5.93% -15.83%
2 2026-05-29 21.99% 21.75% -0.23%
3 2026-03-18 — 21.99% —

Full EPSS history (53 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-16932

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
7.5 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/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:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
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.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-16932

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2017-16932

GHSA-x2fm-93ww-ggvx · Severity: high · Ecosystem: rubygems — Nokogiri gem, via libxml, is affected by DoS vulnerabilities

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-16932

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2017-16932: 2 source package rows (clamav, libxml2); 25 state rows across 15 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.19-main, 3.20-community, 3.20-main, 3.21-community, 3.21-main, 3.22-community, 3.22-main, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 10, open 15. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2017-16932
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-16932 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-2017-16932
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-16932
suse medium CVE-2017-16932 severity moderate: SUSE including 254 source package names (24.394:libxml2-2-2.9.4-46.54.3, 26.458:libxml2-2-2.9.4-46.54.3, …), 383 product×package rows across 52 product lines (Container suse/ltss/sle12.5/sles12sp5, Container suse/sles12sp3, … (52 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Fixed 132, Known Not Affected 20. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-16932/
ubuntu low CVE-2017-16932 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libxml2), 6 status rows across 6 suites (artful, bionic, trusty, upstream, xenial, zesty): released 6. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-16932

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-16932

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
xmlsoft libxml2 <= 2.9.4 cpe:2.3:a:xmlsoft:libxml2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-16932

URL Tags
http://xmlsoft.org/news.html Release Notes Vendor Advisory
https://blog.clamav.net/2018/07/clamav-01001-has-been-released.html
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=759579 Permissions Required
https://github.com/GNOME/libxml2/commit/899a5d9f0ed13b8e32449a08a361e0de127dd961 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/commit/899a5d9f0ed13b8e32449a08a361e0de127dd961
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b@%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4@%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2017/11/msg00041.html
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/04/msg00004.html
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3739-1/
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
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