Detections
Analytics

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 26.04 LTS : libxml2 vulnerabilities (USN-8910-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 365375

Synopsis

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

Description

The remote Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 26.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-8910-1 advisory.

 Yirou Yang discovered that libxml2 incorrectly handled certain XML catalogs. If a user or automated system was tricked into processing a specially crafted XML catalog, an attacker could possibly use this issue to cause libxml2 to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-76781)

 It was discovered that libxml2 incorrectly handled certain large qualified names, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause libxml2 to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2026-86138)

 It was discovered that libxml2 incorrectly handled escaping certain large URI strings. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause libxml2 to use excessive resources, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-86139)

 Xudong Cao and Meng Xu discovered that libxml2 incorrectly handled certain large XPointer expressions, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause libxml2 to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2026-86142)

 Xudong Cao and Meng Xu discovered that libxml2 did not check for integer overflows before passing output lengths to write callbacks. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause an application using libxml2 to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-86143)

 It was discovered that libxml2 did not apply parser options, such as disabling network access, when processing XInclude directives under certain circumstances. An attacker could possibly use this issue to perform XML external entity injection or server-side request forgery attacks, or cause a denial of service. (CVE-2026-86144)

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-8910-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 365375

File Name: ubuntu_USN-8910-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Published: 10/13/2026

Updated: 10/13/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.9

Percentile: 96.5

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5.3

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-86144

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 7

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxml2-16, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxml2-source, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxml2-utils, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxml2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python-libxml2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python3-libxml2

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: 10/8/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 9/5/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-76781, CVE-2026-86138, CVE-2026-86139, CVE-2026-86142, CVE-2026-86143, CVE-2026-86144

IAVA: 2026-A-0980

USN: 8910-1