libxml2 XML Catalog DoS via Repeated <nextCatalog> Recursion
CVE-2026-0992 Published on January 15, 2026

Libxml2: libxml2: denial of service via crafted xml catalogs
A flaw was found in the libxml2 library. This uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability occurs when processing XML catalogs that contain repeated <nextCatalog> elements pointing to the same downstream catalog. A remote attacker can exploit this by supplying crafted catalogs, causing the parser to redundantly traverse catalog chains. This leads to excessive CPU consumption and degrades application availability, resulting in a denial-of-service condition.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-0992 is exploitable with local system 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 small impact on availability.

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

Timeline

Reported to Red Hat.

Made public.

Weakness Type

What is a Resource Exhaustion Vulnerability?

The software does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources.

CVE-2026-0992 has been classified to as a Resource Exhaustion vulnerability or weakness.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-0992

You can be notified by email with stack.watch whenever vulnerabilities like CVE-2026-0992 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
0.02%
Percentile
5.54%

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.