CVE-2022-23476

HIGH

Unchecked return value from xmlTextReaderExpand

Published December 8, 2022Updated November 8, 2023Source: osv

Summary

## Summary Nokogiri `1.13.8, 1.13.9` fails to check the return value from `xmlTextReaderExpand` in the method `Nokogiri::XML::Reader#attribute_hash`. This can lead to a null pointer exception when invalid markup is being parsed. For applications using `XML::Reader` to parse untrusted inputs, this may potentially be a vector for a denial of service attack. ## Mitigation Upgrade to Nokogiri `>= 1.13.10`. Users may be able to search their code for calls to either `XML::Reader#attributes` or `XML::Reader#attribute_hash` to determine if they are affected. ## Severity The Nokogiri maintainers have evaluated this as [High Severity 7.5 (CVSS3.1)](https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.1#CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). ## References - [CWE - CWE-252: Unchecked Return Value (4.9)](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/252.html) - [CWE - CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference (4.9)](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/476.html) ## Credit This vulnerability was responsibly reported by @davidwilemski.

Remediation

Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.

Bundler

Update nokogiri to 1.13.10 or later

gem install nokogiri -v 1.13.10

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

Affected Packages (1)

Package	Ecosystem	Affected	Fixed In
nokogiri	rubygems	1.13.8, 1.13.9	1.13.10

Vulnerability Classification

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

CWE-252
View on MITRE
CWE-476
NULL Pointer DereferenceMITRE

CVSS Score Breakdown

What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 7.5 score means for each attack dimension.

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

None

Integrity

None

Availability

High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2022-23476?: Unchecked return value from xmlTextReaderExpand This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of HIGH (CVSS score: 7.5/10).
How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2022-23476?: CVE-2022-23476 affects nokogiri. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2022-23476 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.

Severity & Exploitability

CVSS Score

7.5

High exploitability or significant impact. Prioritize remediation within days.

Also Known As

GHSA-qv4q-mr5r-qprj

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Nokogiri has vulnerable dependencies on libxml2 and libxslt
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Nokogiri gem, via libxml, is affected by DoS vulnerabilities
CVE-2022-29181
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Nokogiri Improperly Handles Unexpected Data Type
CVE-2021-3537
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Nokogiri Implements libxml2 version vulnerable to null pointer dereferencing
CVE-2026-57235
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Nokogiri: Possible Out-of-Bounds Read in `Nokogiri::XML::NodeSet#[]`
CVE-2026-57436
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Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when setting `Document#root=` to an invalid node type

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