Detections
Analytics

Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2015-7942

critical Nessus Plugin ID 218987

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

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

 - 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. (CVE-2015-7942)

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

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2015-7942

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 218987

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2015_7942.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/4/2025

Updated: 1/28/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 6.1

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2015-7942

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 9.3

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:libxml2, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:4

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/22/2015

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2015-7942