Quantum Secular Labs / Blog / Advisories

CVE-2004-0989: Xmlsoft Libxml: Buffer overflow

CVE-2004-0989 has a CVSS v2 base score of 10.0 (the maximum on that scale) and affects Xmlsoft Libxml, along with 4 other products in NVD’s configuration data. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

Multiple buffer overflows in libXML 2.6.12 and 2.6.13 (libxml2), and possibly other versions, may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via (1) a long FTP URL that is not properly handled by the xmlNanoFTPScanURL function, (2) a long proxy URL containing FTP data that is not properly handled by the xmlNanoFTPScanProxy function, and other overflows related to manipulation of DNS length values, including (3) xmlNanoFTPConnect, (4) xmlNanoHTTPConnectHost, and (5) xmlNanoHTTPConnectHost.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v2.0 10.0: AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

  • Access vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network.
  • Access complexity: Low. No special conditions are required.
  • Authentication: None. No authentication is needed.
  • Confidentiality impact: Complete. Total information disclosure.
  • Integrity impact: Complete. Total loss of integrity.
  • Availability impact: Complete. Total shutdown of the component.

Affected products

  • Xmlsoft Libxml: 1.8.17
  • Xmlsoft Libxml2: 2.5.11; 2.6.6; 2.6.7; 2.6.8; 2.6.9; 2.6.11; 2.6.12; 2.6.13; 2.6.14
  • Xmlstarlet Command Line XML Toolkit: 0.9.1
  • Red Hat Fedora Core: core_2.0
  • Trustix Secure Linux: 2.0; 2.1
  • Ubuntu Linux: 4.1

References