ModSecurity v3 XML Request Body Processor Uninitialized Pointer Dereference Vulnerability

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-73857
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-11-09 22:18:54 UTC
Updated2026-11-10 17:17:47 UTC
DescriptionModSecurity is an open source, cross platform web application firewall (WAF) engine for Apache, IIS and Nginx. From 3.0.15 until 3.0.17, XML request body processing with SecParseXmlIntoArgs set to On or OnlyArgs can leave XMLNodes::parsing_ctx_arg uninitialized in the SAX end-element callback. A single crafted unauthenticated HTTP request can make a worker dereference the pointer, resulting in a constant-value write to an attacker-controlled address. The resulting memory corruption can terminate the worker and may disclose memory or redirect execution. Earlier 3.0.x releases and ModSecurity 2.x do not use the affected path. This issue is fixed in version 3.0.17.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.5 HIGH from [email protected]

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

Problem Types: CWE-787 | CWE-824 | CWE-787 CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write | CWE-824 CWE-824: Access of Uninitialized Pointer

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

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

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

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Owasp-modsecurity ModSecurity affected >= 3.0.15, < 3.0.17 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/owasp-modsecurity/ModSecurity/commit/e979a73e89d60cefdf42b41b... [email protected] github.com
github.com/owasp-modsecurity/ModSecurity/releases/tag/v3.0.17 [email protected] github.com
github.com/owasp-modsecurity/ModSecurity/security/advisories/GHSA-jx3r-p... [email protected] github.com
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