Nmap 7.70 Denial of Service via XML Entity Expansion

Summary

CVECVE-2018-25282
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerVulnCheck
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-04-26 22:17:28 UTC
Updated2026-04-26 22:17:28 UTC
DescriptionNmap 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.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v4.0 6.9 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Problem Types: CWE-674 | CWE-674 Uncontrolled Recursion


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
4.0[email protected]Secondary6.9MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/C...
4.0CNACVSS6.9MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
3.1[email protected]Primary6.2MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1CNACVSS6.2MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v4.0 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
None
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Sub Conf.
None
Sub Integrity
None
Sub Availability
None

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA ZenMap ZenMap affected 7.70 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
nmap.org/dist/nmap-7.70-setup.exe [email protected] nmap.org
www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45357 [email protected] www.exploit-db.com
www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nmap-denial-of-service-via-xml-entity-expansion [email protected] www.vulncheck.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Gionathan "John" Reale (en)

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