# CVE-2009-2414: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can crash applications using libxml2 by sending XML with deeply nested DTD element declarations, causing stack exhaustion.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 11 Aug 2009
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2414, GHSA-pxj8-hpwc-88mp

## What is CVE-2009-2414?

CVE-2009-2414 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Xmlsoft Libxml2, published on 11 Aug 2009. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Stack consumption vulnerability in libxml2 2.5.10, 2.6.16, 2.6.26, 2.6.27, and 2.6.32, and libxml 1.8.17, allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a large depth of element declarations in a DTD, related to a function recursion, as demonstrated by the Codenomicon XML fuzzing framework.

Weakness: CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2009-2414?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Xmlsoft Libxml, Xmlsoft Libxml2.

## How do I fix CVE-2009-2414?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2009-2414 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2009-2414 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Xmlsoft Libxml2

- [CVE-2008-4226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4226/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2011-1944](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1944/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2008-4225](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4225/): Integer overflow in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2009-2414 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2009-2414 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Xmlsoft Libxml2, published on 11 Aug 2009. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2009-2414 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Xmlsoft Libxml2. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-2414/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-2414/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-2414
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2009-2414
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2009-2414

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-2414/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.