libxml2 Uncontrolled Recursion in xmlCatalogXMLResolveURI Causing DoS
CVE-2026-0990 Published on January 15, 2026

Libxml2: libxml2: denial of service via uncontrolled recursion in xml catalog processing
A flaw was found in libxml2, an XML parsing library. This uncontrolled recursion vulnerability occurs in the xmlCatalogXMLResolveURI function when an XML catalog contains a delegate URI entry that references itself. A remote attacker could exploit this configuration-dependent issue by providing a specially crafted XML catalog, leading to infinite recursion and call stack exhaustion. This ultimately results in a segmentation fault, causing a Denial of Service (DoS) by crashing affected applications.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-0990 is exploitable with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, and a high impact on availability.

Attack Vector:
NETWORK
Attack Complexity:
HIGH
Privileges Required:
NONE
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
NONE
Integrity Impact:
NONE
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Timeline

Reported to Red Hat.

Made public.

Weakness Type

What is a Stack Exhaustion Vulnerability?

The product does not properly control the amount of recursion which takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.

CVE-2026-0990 has been classified to as a Stack Exhaustion vulnerability or weakness.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-0990

You can be notified by email with stack.watch whenever vulnerabilities like CVE-2026-0990 are published in these products:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
 
Red Hat Jboss Core Services
 
Red Hat Openshift
 
Canonical Ubuntu Linux
 

Affected Versions

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: Red Hat JBoss Core Services: Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4:

Exploit Probability

EPSS
0.06%
Percentile
17.90%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.