CVE-2026-72522: Medium severity libexpat vulnerability
Published Aug 10, 2026
·Updated
libexpat before 2.8.3 has an out-of-bounds read and resultant infinite loop because low surrogates are treated the same as high surrogates during Unicode processing in the toUtf16 functions.
Affected Software
2 affected componentsFixes available
libexpat<2.8.3
Microsoft azl3 expat 2.8.2-1<2.8.3-1
2.8.3-1
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade to a fixed release to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 2.8.3-1
Event History
Aug 10, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·03:28 AM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·03:28 AM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Data Sourced
via NVD·04:16 AM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Aug 11, 2026
Data Sourced
via Microsoft·08:08 AM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Data Sourced
via Microsoft·08:08 AM
Affected Software
Updated
via Microsoft·08:08 AM
DescriptionSeverity
Frequently Asked Questions
1
What is the severity of CVE-2026-72522?
CVE-2026-72522 has a medium severity score of 6.2.
2
How do I fix CVE-2026-72522?
To mitigate CVE-2026-72522, update libexpat to version 2.8.3 or later.
3
What type of vulnerability is CVE-2026-72522?
CVE-2026-72522 is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability that can lead to an infinite loop.
4
What software is affected by CVE-2026-72522?
CVE-2026-72522 affects libexpat versions before 2.8.3.
5
What causes the vulnerability in CVE-2026-72522?
The vulnerability in CVE-2026-72522 is caused by low surrogates being treated the same as high surrogates during Unicode processing.