Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS : libxml2 vulnerabilities (USN-3235-1)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 97793

Synopsis

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

Description

It was discovered that libxml2 incorrectly handled format strings. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a specially crafted document, an attacker could possibly cause libxml2 to crash, resulting in a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. (CVE-2016-4448)

It was discovered that libxml2 incorrectly handled certain malformed documents. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a specially crafted document, an attacker could cause libxml2 to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary code.
(CVE-2016-4658)

Nick Wellnhofer discovered that libxml2 incorrectly handled certain malformed documents. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a specially crafted document, an attacker could cause libxml2 to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2016-5131).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3235-1

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 97793

File Name: ubuntu_USN-3235-1.nasl

Version: 3.7

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 3/17/2017

Updated: 10/23/2023

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 10

Temporal Score: 7.8

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2016-4658

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 8.8

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:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxml2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxml2-dev, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxml2-udeb, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxml2-utils, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python-libxml2, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-: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: 3/16/2017

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/9/2016

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2016-4448, CVE-2016-4658, CVE-2016-5131

USN: 3235-1