CVE-2026-66046 evidence review
libexpat project libexpat
Expat through 2.8.3 contains a denial of service vulnerability caused by quadratic algorithmic complexity in the storeAtts() function in xmlparse.c, where processing N specified attributes with non-normalized values triggers an O(N^2) linear scan of elementType->defaultAtts to determine CDATA status. A remote unauthenticated attacker can supply a single well-formed XML document of a few megabytes to an application parsing untrusted XML to cause excessive CPU consumption, resulting in denial of service without requiring authentication, external entity resolution, or non-default parser options.
This record remains available for product and version identification, but it is not presented as a complete remediation procedure. Confirm the affected range and the supported fix in a direct vendor advisory before changing production systems.
Identify the product and installed version
Record whether libexpat project libexpat is present, where it is installed, and which interfaces are exposed.
- Record the product name, package or appliance identifier, and installed version.
- Identify internet-facing, administrative, API, and internal access paths.
- Preserve the pre-change configuration and relevant service logs.
Compare the affected range
Use the current record as an identification aid: <= 2.8.3. Resolve incomplete inventory results before deciding that an asset is unaffected.
Verify the authoritative remediation source
Open the linked source material and locate a direct vendor advisory for this CVE. Confirm the supported fixed release and product-specific update path before making a production change.
Operational boundary
This page does not replace the vendor advisory, support contract, change-management process, or recovery plan. Do not infer that an asset is unaffected from an incomplete inventory query or a missing fixed-version field.