CVE-2020-24977 Memory corruption in n/a

Medium 6.5 Published 3 Sep 2020 Updated 14 Oct 2026

A global buffer over-read in libxml2 allows attackers to cause denial of service or disclose sensitive memory contents.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2020-24977?

CVE-2020-24977 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 3 Sep 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

GNOME project libxml2 v2.9.10 has a global buffer over-read vulnerability in xmlEncodeEntitiesInternal at libxml2/entities.c. The issue has been fixed in commit 50f06b3e.

Weakness: CWE-125

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-24977?

It affects 18 products.

Linux distribution packages (20)

`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`libxml2-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`python3-libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`libxml2` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`python3-libxml2` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`python3-libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`libxml2` Rocky Linux:8	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8`
`libxml2` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1	All versions	`2.9.7-3.25.1`
`python-libxml2-python` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1	All versions	`2.9.7-3.25.1`
`libxml2` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2	All versions	`2.9.7-3.25.1`
`python-libxml2-python` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2	All versions	`2.9.7-3.25.1`
`python-libxml2-python` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Python 2 15 SP1	All versions	`2.9.7-3.25.1`
`python-libxml2-python` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Python 2 15 SP2	All versions	`2.9.7-3.25.1`
`libxml2` openSUSE:Leap 15.1	All versions	`2.9.7-lp151.5.15.1`
`python-libxml2-python` openSUSE:Leap 15.1	All versions	`2.9.7-lp151.5.15.1`
`libxml2` openSUSE:Leap 15.2	All versions	`2.9.7-lp152.10.3.1`
`python-libxml2-python` openSUSE:Leap 15.2	All versions	`2.9.7-lp152.10.3.1`

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Netapp Active Iq Unified Manager, Netapp Clustered Data Ontap, Netapp Clustered Data Ontap Antivirus Connector, Netapp Hci H410c Firmware and 12 more.

How do I fix CVE-2020-24977?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2020-24977 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-24977 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2020-24977, DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24977, ECHO-8205-149e-9651, GHSA-w4m9-3rvp-7fhj, JLSEC-2025-69, MGASA-2021-0002 and 6 more.