FreeBSD : Vulnerability found in Expat (bacc1417-4d82-11f1-87f3-18dbf25a98c6)

high Nessus Plugin ID 314367

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Synopsis

The remote FreeBSD host is missing one or more security-related updates.

Description

The version of FreeBSD installed on the remote host is prior to tested version. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the bacc1417-4d82-11f1-87f3-18dbf25a98c6 advisory.

Expat 2.8.1 was released yesterday. The key motivation for cutting a release and doing so now was:
Fixing vulnerability CVE-2026-45186 that allows easy denial of service.
See also https://github.com/libexpat/libexpat/pull/1216

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

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

Solution

Update the affected packages.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 314367

File Name: freebsd_pkg_bacc14174d8211f187f318dbf25a98c6.nasl

Version: 1.3

Type: Local

Family: FreeBSD Local Security Checks

Published: 5/12/2026

Updated: 5/15/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.1

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-45186

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.7

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:P/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:freebsd:freebsd:linux-rl9-expat, p-cpe:/a:freebsd:freebsd:linux-c7-expat, p-cpe:/a:freebsd:freebsd:expat, cpe:/o:freebsd:freebsd

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/FreeBSD/release, Host/FreeBSD/pkg_info

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 5/11/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/10/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-45186

IAVA: 2026-A-0451

Detections

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