GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97: Duplicate Advisory Use-after-free Vulnerability

MODERATE
Share
CWE-416
Published
Advisory Summary

GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97 is a MODERATE use-after-free vulnerability (CWE-416: Use After Free) affecting Duplicate Advisory libraries in the RubyGems ecosystem. The issue involves use-after-free in libxml2 via nokogiri::xml::reader. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 1.15.6, 1.16.2.

GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97 at a Glance

CVE Identifier N/A
GHSA Identifier GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score N/A
CWE Classification CWE-416: Use After Free
Affected Product Duplicate Advisory
Package Ecosystem RubyGems
Published Date
Last Updated

How to Fix GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Duplicate Advisory dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

nokogiri fixed: 1.15.6 
Upgrade nokogiri to 1.15.6
nokogiri fixed: 1.16.2 
Upgrade nokogiri to 1.16.2
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

inspect dependencies for nokogiri

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97, inspect your project dependencies for Duplicate Advisory:

inspect dependencies for nokogiri

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Duplicate Advisory in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 1.15.6), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-416: Use After Free, where the product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. at some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer. In Duplicate Advisory, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

# Duplicate Advisory This advisory has been withdrawn because it is a duplicate of GHSA-xc9x-jj77-9p9j. This link is maintained to preserve external references. # Original Description ### Summary Nokogiri upgrades its dependency libxml2 as follows: - v1.15.6 upgrades libxml2 to 2.11.7 from 2.11.6 - v1.16.2 upgrades libxml2 to 2.12.5 from 2.12.4 libxml2 v2.11.7 and v2.12.5 address the following vulnerability: CVE-2024-25062 / https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2024-25062 - described at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/issues/604 - patched by https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/commit/92721970 Please note that this advisory only applies to the CRuby implementation of Nokogiri, and only if the packaged libraries are being used. If you've overridden defaults at installation time to use system libraries instead of packaged libraries, you should instead pay attention to your distro's libxml2 release announcements. JRuby users are not affected. ### Severity The Nokogiri maintainers have evaluated this as **Moderate**. ### Impact From the CVE description, this issue applies to the `xmlTextReader` module (which underlies `Nokogiri::XML::Reader`): > When using the XML Reader interface with DTD validation and XInclude expansion enabled, > processing crafted XML documents can lead to an xmlValidatePopElement use-after-free. ### Mitigation Upgrade to Nokogiri `~> 1.15.6` or `>= 1.16.2`. Users who are unable to upgrade Nokogiri may also choose a more complicated mitigation: compile and link Nokogiri against patched external libxml2 libraries which will also address these same issues.

GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97 Affected Duplicate Advisory Versions

2 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
1.15.61.16.2
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
nokogiri
gem/nokogiri
RubyGems
< 1.15.6
1.15.6
nokogiri
gem/nokogiri
RubyGems
≥ 1.16.0
< 1.16.2
1.16.2

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/security/advisories/GHSA-xc9x-jj77-9p9j
Duplicate Advisory Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/nokogiri/GHSA-xc9x-jj77-9p9j.yml
Duplicate Advisory Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97?
GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97 is a security vulnerability in Duplicate Advisory involving Use-after-free in libxml2 via Nokogiri::XML::Reader under CWE-416: Use After Free.
Which Duplicate Advisory versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 1.15.6, 1.16.2 across affected packages: nokogiri.
What version fixes GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97?
Upgrading to 1.15.6, 1.16.2 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is nokogiri affected?
Yes, nokogiri is affected in releases prior to 1.15.6, 1.16.2. Upgrade your dependency to 1.15.6, 1.16.2 or later.
What CWE is associated with GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97?
GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97 is classified under CWE-416: Use After Free (The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.).
How can I check RubyGems dependencies for GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for nokogiri'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-vcc3-rw6f-jv97",
  "modified" : "2025-05-23T20:02:12Z",
  "published" : "2024-03-18T20:38:40Z",
  "withdrawn" : "2025-05-23T20:02:12Z",
  "aliases" : [ ],
  "summary" : "Duplicate Advisory: Use-after-free in libxml2 via Nokogiri::XML::Reader",
  "details" : "# Duplicate Advisory\nThis advisory has been withdrawn because it is a duplicate of GHSA-xc9x-jj77-9p9j. This link is maintained to preserve external references.\n\n# Original Description\n\n### Summary\n\nNokogiri upgrades its dependency libxml2 as follows:\n- v1.15.6 upgrades libxml2 to 2.11.7 from 2.11.6\n- v1.16.2 upgrades libxml2 to 2.12.5 from 2.12.4\n\nlibxml2 v2.11.7 and v2.12.5 address the following vulnerability:\n\nCVE-2024-25062 / https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2024-25062\n- described at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/issues/604\n- patched by https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/commit/92721970\n\nPlease note that this advisory only applies to the CRuby implementation of Nokogiri, and only if\nthe packaged libraries are being used. If you've overridden defaults at installation time to use\nsystem libraries instead of packaged libraries, you should instead pay attention to your distro's\nlibxml2 release announcements.\n\nJRuby users are not affected.\n\n### Severity\n\nThe Nokogiri maintainers have evaluated this as **Moderate**.\n\n### Impact\n\nFrom the CVE description, this issue applies to the `xmlTextReader` module (which underlies\n`Nokogiri::XML::Reader`):\n\n> When using the XML Reader interface with DTD validation and XInclude expansion enabled,\n> processing crafted XML documents can lead to an xmlValidatePopElement use-after-free.\n\n### Mitigation\n\nUpgrade to Nokogiri `~> 1.15.6` or `>= 1.16.2`.\n\nUsers who are unable to upgrade Nokogiri may also choose a more complicated mitigation: compile\nand link Nokogiri against patched external libxml2 libraries which will also address these same\nissues.",
  "severity" : [ ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "RubyGems",
      "name" : "nokogiri"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.15.6"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "RubyGems",
      "name" : "nokogiri"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "1.16.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.16.2"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/security/advisories/GHSA-xc9x-jj77-9p9j"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/nokogiri/GHSA-xc9x-jj77-9p9j.yml"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-416" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2024-03-18T20:38:40Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}