libxml2: Denial of service

Background

libxml2 is the XML C parser and toolkit developed for the Gnome project.

Description

parser.c in libxml2 before 2.9.2 does not properly prevent entity expansion even when entity substitution has been disabled.

Impact

A context-dependent attacker could entice a user to a specially crafted XML file using an application linked against libxml2, possibly resulting in a Denial of Service condition.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All libxml2 users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-libs/libxml2-2.9.2"

Packages which depend on this library may need to be recompiled. Tools such as revdep-rebuild may assist in identifying these packages.