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CVE-2016-4658 — Nokogiri does not forbid namespace nodes in...

CRITICAL

Nokogiri does not forbid namespace nodes in XPointer ranges

Published August 21, 2018Updated February 16, 2024Source: osv

Summary

xpointer.c in libxml2 before 2.9.5 (as used in nokogiri before 1.7.1 amongst other products) does not forbid namespace nodes in XPointer ranges, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (use-after-free and memory corruption) via a crafted XML document.

Advisory Timeline

  • First published August 21, 2018 (2974 days ago).
  • Last revised February 16, 2024 — 2005 days after initial publication.

Remediation

Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.

Bundler
Update nokogiri to 1.7.1 or later
gem install nokogiri -v 1.7.1

After upgrading, run your dependency scanner again to confirm the vulnerability is resolved.

Affected Packages (1)

Affects 1 ecosystem: rubygems (1).

PackageEcosystemAffectedFixed In
nokogiri
rubygems
1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3 (+93 more)1.7.1

Vulnerability Classification

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.

CVSS Score Breakdown

What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 9.8 score means for each attack dimension.

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2016-4658?
Nokogiri does not forbid namespace nodes in XPointer ranges This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of CRITICAL (CVSS score: 9.8/10).
How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2016-4658?
CVE-2016-4658 affects nokogiri. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2016-4658 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.

Severity & Exploitability

CVSS Score
9.8

Exploitation is straightforward and causes maximum impact. Patch immediately.

Also Known As

GHSA-fr52-4hqw-p27f

Related CVEs

  • CVE-2018-25032
    HIGH

    Nokogiri affected by zlib's Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability

  • CVE-2021-3517
    HIGH

    Nokogiri contains libxml Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability

  • CVE-2025-71406
    HIGH

    Nokogiri updates packaged libxslt to v1.1.43 to resolve multiple CVEs

  • CVE-2017-5029
    HIGH

    Nokogiri implementation of libxslt lacks integer overflow checks

  • CVE-2022-23476
    HIGH

    Unchecked return value from xmlTextReaderExpand

  • CVE-2013-6461
    MEDIUM

    Nokogiri vulnerable to DoS while parsing XML entities

  • CVE-2026-57437
    LOW

    Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when directly using `NokogirI::XML::XPathContext` beyond document lifetime

  • CVE-2026-57435
    LOW

    Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when setting an attribute value via `Nokogiri::XML::Attr#value=` or `#content=`

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