CVE-2023-54354
Received Received - Intake

NULL Pointer Dereference in Nokogiri via libxml2

Publication date: 2026-08-25

Last updated on: 2026-08-25

Assigner: VulnCheck

Description
Nokogiri before 1.14.3 (CRuby implementation only, when using the packaged libxml2) bundles libxml2 v2.10.3, which is vulnerable to NULL pointer dereferences in XML Schema processing (xmlSchemaFixupComplexType, CVE-2023-28484, and xmlSchemaCheckCOSSTDerivedOK). An attacker who supplies a crafted/malformed XML schema can cause libxml2 to dereference a NULL pointer and potentially segfault, resulting in a denial of service. Nokogiri 1.14.3 upgrades the packaged libxml2 to v2.10.4 to resolve these issues.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-08-25
Last Modified
2026-08-25
Generated
2026-08-25
AI Q&A
2026-08-25
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2023-54354
EUVD
EUVD-2023-60605

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 5 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
gnome libxml2 From 2.10.4 (inc)
sparklemotion nokogiri to 1.14.3 (exc)
nokogiri nokogiri to 1.14.3 (exc)
gnome libxml2 2.10.3
gnome libxml2 2.10.4

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-476 The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.

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Executive Summary

Nokogiri before version 1.14.3 (CRuby only with packaged libxml2) includes libxml2 v2.10.3 which has NULL pointer dereference flaws in XML Schema processing functions (xmlSchemaFixupComplexType and xmlSchemaCheckCOSSTDerivedOK). A crafted XML schema can trigger these flaws, causing libxml2 to crash via a NULL pointer dereference, leading to denial of service.

Detection Guidance

Check Nokogiri version with gem list nokogiri. If version is less than 1.14.3, it is vulnerable. Also verify libxml2 version if using packaged libraries.

Impact Analysis

If you use Nokogiri < 1.14.3 with its bundled libxml2, an attacker could supply a malformed XML schema to crash your application via a segmentation fault, disrupting service. This only affects CRuby implementations using packaged libraries, not those linked to system libxml2.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability primarily causes denial of service through crashes, which may impact availability of systems processing XML data. GDPR and HIPAA require maintaining data availability and integrity, so repeated crashes could lead to compliance issues if they disrupt critical operations. However, the vulnerability does not directly expose or leak data, so confidentiality requirements are not directly affected.

Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade Nokogiri to version 1.14.3 or higher. If unable to upgrade, compile against an external libxml2 version 2.10.4 or higher.

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