GHSA-p67v-3w7g-wjg7 CVE-2026-57437
Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when directly using `NokogirI::XML::XPathContext` beyond document lifetime
- Severity
- 0.0 / 10
- Medium · CVSS 4.0
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- 0.40%
- Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 34.49% of scored vulnerabilities.
- Known exploited
- No
- Not in CISA's catalog
- Weakness
- CWE-416 Use After Free
- Fix
1.19.4- Upgrade nokogiri to this version or later
Description
Summary
Nokogiri::XML::XPathContext did not keep its source document alive for garbage collection. If an XPathContext outlived its document and the document was collected, evaluating an XPath expression could read invalid memory and potentially segfault.
This is only reachable when application code constructs an XPathContext directly and lets the document become unreachable while continuing to use the context. The normal Document#xpath, #css, and related search methods are not affected, and it is not triggerable by malicious document input.
Nokogiri 1.19.4 makes XPathContext keep its source document alive for as long as the context exists.
Only the CRuby implementation is affected. JRuby is not affected.
Severity
The Nokogiri maintainers have evaluated this as low severity. Reaching it requires an unusual API-usage pattern that does not arise during normal use. The application must construct an XML::XPathContext directly and continue using it after allowing its source document to be garbage-collected. Nokogiri 1.19.4 makes this pattern safe with no change to the public API. The context now keeps its source document alive for as long as it exists.
Mitigation
Upgrade to Nokogiri 1.19.4 or later.
As a workaround, ensure the source document remains referenced for as long as any XPathContext created from it is in use. The standard Document#xpath, #css, and related search methods already do this and are unaffected.
Credit
This issue was responsibly reported by Zheng Yu from depthfirst.com.
Affected versions
RubyGems
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| nokogiri | < 1.19.4 |
1.19.4 |
How to fix
Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.
nokogiri RubyGems → 1.19.4
- bundler
bundle update nokogiri # Gemfile: gem "nokogiri", ">= 1.19.4"
Severity breakdown
CVSS 4.0 0.0
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- Present
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Confidentiality (vulnerable system)
- None
- Integrity (vulnerable system)
- None
- Availability (vulnerable system)
- Low
- Confidentiality (subsequent systems)
- None
- Integrity (subsequent systems)
- None
- Availability (subsequent systems)
- None
- Exploit maturity
- Unreported
CVSS 3.1 5.3
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
Weakness
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 to prevent it
- Architecture and Design: Choose a language that provides automatic memory management.
- Implementation: When freeing pointers, be sure to set them to NULL once they are freed. However, the utilization of multiple or complex data structures may lower the usefulness of this strategy.
References
Packages
Other links
Timeline
- Published
- Last updated by the source
- Latest EPSS score
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why it's related |
|---|---|---|
| GHSA-phwj-rprq-35pp Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when setting an attribute value via `Nokogiri::XML::Attr#value=` or `#content=` | High | Also affects nokogiri |
| GHSA-wfpw-mmfh-qq69 Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free in XInclude Processing | Low | Also affects nokogiri |
| GHSA-wjv4-x9w8-wm3h Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when setting `Document#root=` to an invalid node type | Medium | Also affects nokogiri |
| GHSA-5prr-v3j2-97mh Nokogiri: Possible Out-of-Bounds Read in `Nokogiri::XML::NodeSet#[]` | High | Also affects nokogiri |
| GHSA-9cv2-cfxc-v4v2 Nokogiri: Null Pointer Dereference calling methods on uninitialized wrapper classes | High | Also affects nokogiri |
| GHSA-8678-w3jw-xfc2 Nokogiri: XML::Schema on JRuby allows network requests when NONET is set, bypassing CVE-2020-26247 | Low | Also affects nokogiri |
| GHSA-5v8h-3h3q-446p Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when `Nokogiri::XML::Document#encoding=` raises an exception | High | Also affects nokogiri |
| GHSA-v2fc-qm4h-8hqv Nokogiri XSLT transform has a memory leak | Medium | Also affects nokogiri |
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