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.

Published: 2018-07-19 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-14404 is rated Moderate Risk (51.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.68%). 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-2018-14404

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 20.01% 3.68% -16.33%
2 2026-04-07 18.49% 20.01% +1.52%
3 2026-03-25 — 18.49% —

Full EPSS history (32 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-14404

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 2.8 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-2018-14404

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2018-14404

GHSA-6qvp-r6r3-9p7h · Severity: high · Ecosystem: rubygems — Nokogiri NULL Pointer Dereference

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-14404

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2018-14404: 2 source package rows (libxml2, libxml2.13); 11 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 11, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-14404
debian low CVE-2018-14404 low 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-2018-14404
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-14404
suse medium CVE-2018-14404 severity moderate: SUSE including 480 source package names (0.1.0:libxml2-2-2.9.7-3.3.1, 0.1.75:libxml2-2-2.9.7-3.3.1, …), 731 product×package rows across 270 product lines (Container bci/bci-init, Container bci/dotnet-aspnet, … (270 product lines)): Fixed 533, Known Affected 157, Known Not Affected 41. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-14404/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-14404 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libxml2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (artful, bionic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 4, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-14404

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-14404

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
debian debian_linux — cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
xmlsoft libxml2 <= 2.9.8 cpe:2.3:a:xmlsoft:libxml2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-14404

cvelogic Threat Intelligence