CVE-2025-10990
ReDoS Vulnerability in REXML Hex Character Parsing
Publication date: 2026-02-27
Last updated on: 2026-02-27
Assigner: Red Hat, Inc.
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| red_hat | satellite | 6.17.5 |
| red_hat | satellite | 6.17 |
| red_hat | satellite_capsule | 6.17 |
| red_hat | enterprise_linux | 9 |
| red_hat | satellite | 6.16 |
| red_hat | satellite_capsule | 6.16 |
| red_hat | enterprise_linux | 8 |
| red_hat | satellite_client | 6 |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-1333 | The product uses a regular expression with an inefficient, possibly exponential worst-case computational complexity that consumes excessive CPU cycles. |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability is a flaw in REXML where a remote attacker can exploit inefficient regular expression parsing when processing hexadecimal numeric character references in XML documents.
Specifically, the issue arises from how the system handles regex parsing of sequences like &#x...; which can be manipulated to cause excessive processing time.
This leads to a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS), meaning the affected component's availability can be disrupted by making it spend too much time processing crafted input.
The vulnerability is due to an incomplete fix for a previous related issue (CVE-2024-49761).
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
The primary impact of this vulnerability is a Denial of Service (DoS) condition caused by the inefficient regex processing.
An attacker can remotely trigger this by sending specially crafted XML documents containing hexadecimal numeric character references.
This can cause the affected component to become unavailable or unresponsive, impacting the availability of services relying on REXML.
How does this vulnerability affect compliance with common standards and regulations (like GDPR, HIPAA)?:
I don't know
How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?
I don't know
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
I don't know