Uncontrolled recursion in XPath evaluation in libxml2 up to and including version 2.9.14 allows a local attacker to cause a stack overflow via crafted expressions. XPath processing functions `xmlXPathRunEval`, `xmlXPathCtxtCompile`, and `xmlXPathEvalExpr` were resetting recursion depth to zero before making potentially recursive calls. When such functions were called recursively this could allow for uncontrolled recursion and lead to a stack overflow. These functions now preserve recursion depth across recursive calls, allowing recursion depth to be controlled.

The remote SUSE Linux SLES12 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the SUSE-SU-2025:4104-1 advisory.

    - CVE-2025-9714: Fixed infinite recursion at exsltDynMapFunction function in libexslt/dynamic.c     (bsc#1249076)
    - CVE-2025-8732: Fixed infinite recursion in catalog parsing functions when processing malformed SGML     catalog files (bsc#1247850)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Unity Linux 20 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the UTSA-2025-990908 advisory.

    Uncontrolled recursion inXPath evaluationin libxml2 up to and including version 2.9.14 allows a local     attacker to cause a stack overflow via crafted expressions. XPath processing functions `xmlXPathRunEval`,     `xmlXPathCtxtCompile`, and `xmlXPathEvalExpr` were resetting recursion depth to zero before making     potentially recursive calls. When such functions were called recursively this could allow for uncontrolled     recursion and lead to a stack overflow. These functions now preserve recursion depth across recursive     calls, allowing recursion depth to be controlled.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Unity Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Debian 11 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the dla-4319 advisory.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------     Debian LTS Advisory DLA-4319-1                debian-lts@lists.debian.org     https://www.debian.org/lts/security/                       Guilhem Moulin     September 30, 2025                            https://wiki.debian.org/LTS
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Package        : libxml2     Version        : 2.9.10+dfsg-6.7+deb11u9     CVE ID         : CVE-2025-9714 CVE-2025-7425     Debian Bug     : 1109122

    Two security issues were found in libxml2, the GNOME XML library, which     could yield denial of service or heap corruption.

    CVE-2025-9714

        It was discovered that recursion evaluation in XPath evaluation is         uncontrolled and therefore allows a local attacker to cause a stack         overflow via crafted expressions.

    CVE-2025-7425

        Sergei Glazunov discovered a heap-use-after-free in xmlFreeID()         caused by `atype` corruption.  While the vulnerability was reported         against libxslt, the XSLT 1.0 processing library, it is now         mitigated in this libxml2 version.

    For Debian 11 bullseye, this problem has been fixed in version     2.9.10+dfsg-6.7+deb11u9.

    We recommend that you upgrade your libxml2 packages.

    For the detailed security status of libxml2 please refer to     its security tracker page at:
    https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/libxml2

    Further information about Debian LTS security advisories, how to apply     these updates to your system and frequently asked questions can be     found at: https://wiki.debian.org/LTS     Attachment:
    signature.asc     Description: PGP signature

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Debian security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - Uncontrolled recursion in XPath evaluation in libxml2 up to and including version 2.9.14 allows a local     attacker to cause a stack overflow via crafted expressions. XPath processing functions `xmlXPathRunEval`,     `xmlXPathCtxtCompile`, and `xmlXPathEvalExpr` were resetting recursion depth to zero before making     potentially recursive calls. When such functions were called recursively this could allow for uncontrolled     recursion and lead to a stack overflow. These functions now preserve recursion depth across recursive     calls, allowing recursion depth to be controlled. (CVE-2025-9714)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
275505	SUSE SLES12 Security Update : libxml2 (SUSE-SU-2025:4104-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
275422	Unity Linux 20.1070e Security Update: libxslt (UTSA-2025-990908)	Nessus	Unity Linux Local Security Checks	medium
266335	Debian dla-4319 : libxml2 - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	medium
261451	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-9714	Nessus	Misc.	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2025-9714

medium

Tenable Plugins

medium

medium

medium

medium