Apple macOS up to 11.5.2 libexpat denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Apple macOS up to 11.5.2 and classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component libexpat. The manipulation leads to denial of service. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2013-0340. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Apple macOS up to 11.5.2 (Operating System). It has been rated as problematic. This issue affects an unknown part of the component libexpat. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

expat before version 2.4.0 does not properly handle entities expansion unless an application developer uses the XML_SetEntityDeclHandler function, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption), send HTTP requests to intranet servers, or read arbitrary files via a crafted XML document, aka an XML External Entity (XXE) issue. NOTE: it could be argued that because expat already provides the ability to disable external entity expansion, the responsibility for resolving this issue lies with application developers; according to this argument, this entry should be REJECTed, and each affected application would need its own CVE.

The weakness was published 09/13/2021 as HT212804 as confirmed advisory (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at support.apple.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2013-0340. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1499 according to MITRE ATT&CK. The advisory points out:

A remote attacker may be able to cause a denial of service

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 276721 (RHEL 9 : expat (RHSA-2025:22035)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 11.6 eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published immediately after the disclosure of the vulnerability. The advisory contains the following remark:

This issue was addressed by updating expat to version 2.4.1.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (276721). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Apple

Name

• macOS

Version

• 11.5.0
• 11.5.1
• 11.5.2

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.apple.com/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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