GHSA-cgx6-hpwq-fhv5
HIGHInteger Overflow or Wraparound in libxml2 affects Nokogiri
Blast Radius
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Description
Summary
Nokogiri v1.13.5 upgrades the packaged version of its dependency libxml2 from v2.9.13 to v2.9.14.
libxml2 v2.9.14 addresses CVE-2022-29824. This version also includes several security-related bug fixes for which CVEs were not created, including a potential double-free, potential memory leaks, and integer-overflow.
Please note that this advisory only applies to the CRuby implementation of Nokogiri < 1.13.5, and only if the packaged libraries are being used. If you've overridden defaults at installation time to use system libraries instead of packaged libraries, you should instead pay attention to your distro's libxml2 and libxslt release announcements.
Mitigation
Upgrade to Nokogiri >= 1.13.5.
Users who are unable to upgrade Nokogiri may also choose a more complicated mitigation: compile and link Nokogiri against external libraries libxml2 >= 2.9.14 which will also address these same issues.
Impact
libxml2 CVE-2022-29824
- CVSS3 score:
- Unspecified upstream
- Nokogiri maintainers evaluate at 8.6 (High) (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H). Note that this is different from the CVSS assessed by NVD.
- Type: Denial of service, information disclosure
- Description: In libxml2 before 2.9.14, several buffer handling functions in buf.c (xmlBuf*) and tree.c (xmlBuffer*) don't check for integer overflows. This can result in out-of-bounds memory writes. Exploitation requires a victim to open a crafted, multi-gigabyte XML file. Other software using libxml2's buffer functions, for example libxslt through 1.1.35, is affected as well.
- Fixed: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/commit/2554a24
All versions of libml2 prior to v2.9.14 are affected.
Applications parsing or serializing multi-gigabyte documents (in excess of INT_MAX bytes) may be vulnerable to an integer overflow bug in buffer handling that could lead to exposure of confidential data, modification of unrelated data, or a segmentation fault resulting in a denial-of-service.
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | nokogiri | all versions | 1.13.5 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for nokogiri. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update nokogiri to 1.13.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-cgx6-hpwq-fhv5 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-cgx6-hpwq-fhv5 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-cgx6-hpwq-fhv5. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-cgx6-hpwq-fhv5 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-cgx6-hpwq-fhv5 across RubyGems dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.