Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2024-8176

high Nessus Plugin ID 243875

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.

- A stack overflow vulnerability exists in the libexpat library due to the way it handles recursive entity expansion in XML documents. When parsing an XML document with deeply nested entity references, libexpat can be forced to recurse indefinitely, exhausting the stack space and causing a crash. This issue could lead to denial of service (DoS) or, in some cases, exploitable memory corruption, depending on the environment and library usage. (CVE-2024-8176)

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-2024-8176

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-8176

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-8176

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 243875

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2024_8176.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/5/2025

Updated: 8/5/2025

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 3.7

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2024-8176

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.5

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:cableswig, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:cadaver, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:coin3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ayttm, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:smart, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:firefox-x11, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:vtk, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:mingw64-expat, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mingw32-expat, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:thunderbird, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:vnc4, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:xmlrpc-c, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:matanza, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:expat, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:expat, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mingw-expat, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mingw64-expat, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:firefox, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:mingw-expat, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:mingw32-expat, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:tdom, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:firefox-x11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:wbxml2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:insighttoolkit4, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.04, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:libxmltok, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:swish-e, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:thunderbird, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:gdcm, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxmltok, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:firefox

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

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/12/2023

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2024-8176