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TI-2025-32927 Aliases CVE-2025-52891

ModSecurity empty XML tag causes segmentation fault

Priority LOW 29CWE-20Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.

Summary

ModSecurity is an open source, cross platform web application firewall (WAF) engine for Apache, IIS and Nginx. In versions 2.9.8 to before 2.9.11, an empty XML tag can cause a segmentation fault. If SecParseXmlIntoArgs is set to On or OnlyArgs, and the request type is application/xml, and at least one XML tag is empty (eg <foo></foo>), then a segmentation fault occurs. This issue has been patched in version 2.9.11. A workaround involves setting SecParseXmlIntoArgs to Off.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00382 32nd percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed ModSecurity (owasp-modsecurity): 2.9.11

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
owasp-modsecurityModSecurity2.9.8 to before 2.9.112.9.11Patch availableCNA
  • ModSecurity Vendorowasp-modsecurity Affected 2.9.8 to before 2.9.11 Fixed in 2.9.11 Patch available CNA

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA ModSecurity (owasp-modsecurity) Fixed in 2.9.11

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

Not affected: 4 products
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
  • Red Hat JBoss Core Services

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-52891

References

Other 2

  • TI-2026-37865 ModSecurity: Multipart form-data parser silently strips embedded line breaks from… CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.6
  • TI-2025-40548 FACTION Unauthenticated Custom Extension Upload leads to RCE CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2022-07517 Path Traversal in ESAPI CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-30581 ModSecurity: Unsigned integer underflow in @verifySSN / @verifyCPF / @verifySVNR operators CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.2
  • TI-2026-23748 libModSecurity3 denial of service via segfault when using t:hexDecode on single-character query strings CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.2
  • TI-2025-19980 Libmodsecurity3 has possible bypass of encoded HTML entities CVSS 4.0HIGH 7.9
See all 56 →

Sources

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences