# CVE-2026-1757: Libxml2: memory leak leading to local denial of service in xmllint interactive shell

> A memory leak in the xmllint interactive shell allows local attackers to exhaust system memory and cause a denial of service by repeatedly submitting whitespace input.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 2 Feb 2026
- **Updated:** 1 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-1757, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-1757, ECHO-c488-0c15-5961, GHSA-7qq5-wfv8-hvvh, OESA-2026-1774, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-1757

## What is CVE-2026-1757?

CVE-2026-1757 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 2 Feb 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A flaw was identified in the interactive shell of the xmllint utility, part of the libxml2 project, where memory allocated for user input is not properly released under certain conditions. When a user submits input consisting only of whitespace, the program skips command execution but fails to free the allocated buffer. Repeating this action causes memory to continuously accumulate. Over time, this can exhaust system memory and terminate the xmllint process, creating a denial-of-service condition on the local system.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-1757?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-1757?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-1757 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-1757 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-1757 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-1757 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 2 Feb 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-1757 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. 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-2026-1757/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-1757/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-1757
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-1757
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-1757

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-1757/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.