CVE-2025-9714 Stack overflow in libxml2

Medium 6.2 Published 10 Sep 2025 Updated 12 May 2026

A local attacker can cause a stack overflow and denial of service in libxml2 by providing crafted XPath expressions that trigger uncontrolled recursion.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2025-9714?

CVE-2025-9714 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Xmlsoft Libxml2, published on 10 Sep 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Uncontrolled recursion in XPath evaluation in libxml2 up to and including version 2.9.14 allows a local attacker to cause a stack overflow via crafted expressions. XPath processing functions `xmlXPathRunEval`, `xmlXPathCtxtCompile`, and `xmlXPathEvalExpr` were resetting recursion depth to zero before making potentially recursive calls. When such functions were called recursively this could allow for uncontrolled recursion and lead to a stack overflow. These functions now preserve recursion depth across recursive calls, allowing recursion depth to be controlled.

Weakness: CWE-674

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-9714?

It affects 1 product.

Linux distribution packages (40)

`libxml2` AlmaLinux:8	All versions	`2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`libxml2-devel` AlmaLinux:8	All versions	`2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`python3-libxml2` AlmaLinux:8	All versions	`2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`libxml2` AlmaLinux:9	All versions	`2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`libxml2-devel` AlmaLinux:9	All versions	`2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`python3-libxml2` AlmaLinux:9	All versions	`2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`libxml2-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`python3-libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`libxml2` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`python3-libxml2` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`python3-libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-21.el8_10.4`
`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`libxml2-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`python3-libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`libxml2` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`python3-libxml2` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`python3-libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.13-14.el9_7`
`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.9`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.9`
`libxml2-devel` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.9`
`python3-libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.9`
`libxml2` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.9`
`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.9`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.9`
`python3-libxml2` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.9`
`python3-libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-9.el8_4.9`
`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.13`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.13`
`libxml2-devel` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.13`
`python3-libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::appstream	All versions	`0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.13`
`libxml2` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.13`
`libxml2-debuginfo` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.13`
`libxml2-debugsource` Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.7-13.el8_6.13`

Products include Xmlsoft Libxml2.

How do I fix CVE-2025-9714?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2025-9714 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-9714 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Xmlsoft Libxml2 vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as ALSA-2025:22376, ALSA-2026:11349, CLSA-2025-1759411642, CLSA-2025-1760020147, CLSA-2025-1760020311, CLSA-2025-1760020498 and 27 more.