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Amazon Linux AMI : expat (ALAS-2021-1459)

high Nessus Plugin ID 144990

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Synopsis

The remote Amazon Linux AMI host is missing a security update.

Description

The version of expat installed on the remote host is prior to 2.1.0-12.24. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ALAS-2021-1459 advisory.

 - In libexpat in Expat before 2.2.7, XML input including XML names that contain a large number of colons could make the XML parser consume a high amount of RAM and CPU resources while processing (enough to be usable for denial-of-service attacks). (CVE-2018-20843)

 - In libexpat before 2.2.8, crafted XML input could fool the parser into changing from DTD parsing to document parsing too early; a consecutive call to XML_GetCurrentLineNumber (or XML_GetCurrentColumnNumber) then resulted in a heap-based buffer over-read. (CVE-2019-15903)

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

Solution

Run 'yum update expat' to update your system.

See Also

https://alas.aws.amazon.com/ALAS-2021-1459.html

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-20843

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-15903

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 144990

File Name: ala_ALAS-2021-1459.nasl

Version: 1.5

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 1/14/2021

Updated: 1/30/2024

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.1

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2018-20843

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.7

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

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2019-15903

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:expat-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:expat-devel, cpe:/o:amazon:linux, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:expat

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AmazonLinux/release, Host/AmazonLinux/rpm-list

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 1/12/2021

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/24/2019

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2018-20843, CVE-2019-15903

ALAS: 2021-1459