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Ubuntu 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS : Ruby vulnerabilities (USN-7840-1)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 271850

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-7840-1 advisory.

 It was discovered that the REXML module bunded into Ruby incorrectly handled parsing XML documents with repeated instances of certain characters. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause REXML to consume excessive resources, leading to a denial of service. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS were previously addressed in USN-7256-1 and USN-7734-1. This update addresses the issue in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
 (CVE-2024-35176)

 It was discovered that the REXML module bunded into Ruby incorrectly handled parsing XML documents with repeated instances of certain characters. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause REXML to consume excessive resources, leading to a denial of service. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS was previously addressed in USN-7256-1. This update addresses the issue in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. (CVE-2024-39908, CVE-2024-41123)

 It was discovered that the REXML module bunded into Ruby incorrectly handled parsing XML documents with many entity expansions. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause REXML to consume excessive resources, leading to a denial of service. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS was previously addressed in USN-7091-2. This update addresses the issue in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. (CVE-2024-41946)

 It was discovered that the WEBrick module bundled into Ruby incorrectly handled having both a Content- Length header and a Transfer-Encoding header. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to perform a HTTP request smuggling attack. (CVE-2024-47220)

 It was discovered that the WEBrick module bundled into Ruby incorrectly parsed HTTP headers. In configurations where the WEBrick module is placed behind an HTTP proxy, a remote attacker could possibly use this issue to perform an HTTP Request Smuggling attack. (CVE-2025-6442)

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

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

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-7840-1

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 271850

File Name: ubuntu_USN-7840-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 10/28/2025

Updated: 10/28/2025

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3.6

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.4

Temporal Score: 4.2

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2025-6442

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.9

Temporal Score: 5.3

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

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

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.9

Threat Score: 5.5

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:P

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2024-41946

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ruby2.7-dev, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ruby2.5, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ruby2.5-dev, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libruby2.7, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ruby2.3-dev, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ruby2.3-tcltk, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libruby2.3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ruby2.7, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libruby2.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ruby2.3, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 10/27/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/16/2024

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2024-35176, CVE-2024-39908, CVE-2024-41123, CVE-2024-41946, CVE-2024-47220, CVE-2025-6442

USN: 7840-1