CVE-2018-25282
Received Received - Intake
XML Entity Expansion DoS in Nmap 7.70 ZenMap Import

Publication date: 2026-04-26

Last updated on: 2026-04-26

Assigner: VulnCheck

Description
Nmap 7.70 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows local attackers to crash the application by processing malicious XML files with exponential entity expansion. Attackers can create a crafted XML file with nested entity definitions and open it through ZenMap's scan import functionality to cause the program to consume excessive system resources and crash.
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Meta Information
Published
2026-04-26
Last Modified
2026-04-26
Generated
2026-06-16
AI Q&A
2026-04-27
EPSS Evaluated
2026-06-15
NVD
CVE-2018-25282
EUVD
EUVD-2018-21802
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
insecure xml 7.70
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-674 The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
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Executive Summary

This vulnerability exists in Nmap 7.70 and is a denial of service issue. It allows local attackers to crash the application by processing malicious XML files that contain exponential entity expansion. Specifically, attackers can craft an XML file with nested entity definitions and open it using ZenMap's scan import functionality, causing the program to consume excessive system resources and ultimately crash.

Impact Analysis

The impact of this vulnerability is a denial of service condition. By exploiting the vulnerability, an attacker can cause the Nmap application to crash, leading to a loss of availability. This can disrupt normal operations that rely on Nmap or ZenMap for network scanning and analysis.

Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, avoid opening or importing untrusted or malicious XML files with ZenMap's scan import functionality, as these files can contain crafted nested entity definitions that cause excessive resource consumption and crash the application.

Additionally, consider updating Nmap to a version that addresses this vulnerability once available, or restrict local access to the application to trusted users only.

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