REXML is an XML toolkit for Ruby. The REXML gem before 3.3.9 has a ReDoS vulnerability when it parses an XML that has many digits between &# and x...; in a hex numeric character reference (&#x...;). This does not happen with Ruby 3.2 or later. Ruby 3.1 is the only affected maintained Ruby. The REXML gem 3.3.9 or later include the patch to fix the vulnerability.

The remote Ubuntu 20.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-7091-2 advisory.

    USN-7091-1 fixed several vulnerabilities in Ruby. This update provides the corresponding update for     ruby2.7 in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.



Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The version of ruby / rubygem-rexml installed on the remote CBL Mariner 2.0 host is prior to tested version. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the CVE-2024-49761 advisory.

  - REXML is an XML toolkit for Ruby. The REXML gem before 3.3.9 has a ReDoS vulnerability when it parses an     XML that has many digits between &# and x...; in a hex numeric character reference (&#x...;). This does     not happen with Ruby 3.2 or later. Ruby 3.1 is the only affected maintained Ruby. The REXML gem 3.3.9 or     later include the patch to fix the vulnerability. (CVE-2024-49761)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Ubuntu 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 24.10 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-7091-1 advisory.

    It was discovered that Ruby incorrectly handled parsing of an XML document that has specific XML     characters in an attribute value using REXML gem. An attacker could use this issue to cause Ruby to crash,     resulting in a denial of service. This issue only affected in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
    (CVE-2024-35176, CVE-2024-39908, CVE-2024-41123)

    It was discovered that Ruby incorrectly handled parsing of an XML document that has many entity expansions     with SAX2 or pull parser API. An attacker could use this issue to cause Ruby to crash, resulting in a     denial of service. (CVE-2024-41946)

    It was discovered that Ruby incorrectly handled parsing of an XML document that has many digits in a hex     numeric character reference. An attacker could use this issue to cause Ruby to crash, resulting in a     denial of service. (CVE-2024-49761)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The version of the REXML Ruby library installed on the remote host is prior to 3.3.9. It is, therefore, affected by a ReDoS vulnerability. The vulnerability lies when it parses an XML that has many digits between &# and x...; in a hex numeric character reference (&#x...;). This does not happen with Ruby 3.2 or later. Ruby 3.1 is the only affected maintained Ruby. The REXML gem 3.3.9 or later include the patch to fix the vulnerability.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
211674	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS : Ruby vulnerabilities (USN-7091-2)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
210752	CBL Mariner 2.0 Security Update: ruby / rubygem-rexml (CVE-2024-49761)	Nessus	MarinerOS Local Security Checks	high
210332	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 24.10 : Ruby vulnerabilities (USN-7091-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
210049	Ruby REXML < 3.3.9 ReDoS vulnerability	Nessus	Misc.	high

Detections

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CVE-2024-49761

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Tenable Plugins

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high

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