In Soap Lite (aka the SOAP::Lite extension for Perl) 1.14 and earlier, an example attack…
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Will not fix Red Hat: no fix planned
Attack profile from CVSS 3.0 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-399 and the CVSS impact.
Summary
In Soap Lite (aka the SOAP::Lite extension for Perl) 1.14 and earlier, an example attack consists of defining 10 or more XML entities, each defined as consisting of 10 of the previous entity, with the document consisting of a single instance of the largest entity, which expands to one billion copies of the first entity. The amount of computer memory used for handling an external SOAP call would likely exceed that available to the process parsing the XML.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | all versions | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- — Vendor— Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Satellite 5 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2015-8978
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-9xh5-ghq7-m3c5
References
Sources
- CVE-2015-8978 · CVE Program
- CVE-2015-8978 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-9xh5-ghq7-m3c5 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2015-8978 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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