CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2026-83612NVD status: Deferred

xmldom: Improper Handling of Case Sensitivity

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2026-83612 is a high-severity improper handling of case sensitivity vulnerability in xmldom, with a CVSS 4.0 base score of 8.7 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. Affected xmldom versions: >= 0.9.0-beta.1, < 0.9.12. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.52% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Check which version of xmldom you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
  2. Read the advisory on github.com for workarounds and exact fixed builds.
  3. Until you can update, restrict network access to the affected service so it is not reachable from untrusted networks.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
Xmldomxmldom>= 0.9.0-beta.1, < 0.9.12Not stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Attack requirements
NoneThe attack does not depend on a particular deployment or configuration.
Privileges required
NoneNo account or login is needed.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Confidentiality (vulnerable system)
NoneNo loss of confidentiality on the vulnerable system.
Integrity (vulnerable system)
NoneNo loss of integrity on the vulnerable system.
Availability (vulnerable system)
HighSerious loss of availability on the vulnerable system.
Confidentiality (other systems)
NoneNo loss of confidentiality on systems beyond the vulnerable one.
Integrity (other systems)
NoneNo loss of integrity on systems beyond the vulnerable one.
Availability (other systems)
NoneNo loss of availability on systems beyond the vulnerable one.

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/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. Scored by CNA (github.com).

Official description

xmldom is a pure JavaScript W3C standard-based (XML DOM Level 2 Core) DOMParser and XMLSerializer module. From 0.9.0-beta.1 until 0.9.12, HTML-mode parsing through DOMParser.parseFromString() mishandles a mixed-case closing tag for the script, style, textarea, or title raw-text elements. parseHtmlSpecialContent, selected by isHTMLRawTextElement or isHTMLEscapableRawTextElement, uses a case-sensitive indexOf() and then calls substring() with a missing-close result of negative one, causing unstable parser progression and quadratic output amplification. A small untrusted text/html document can consequently consume disproportionate CPU and memory when parsed and serialized. This issue is fixed in @xmldom/xmldom version 0.9.12.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Improper Handling of Case Sensitivity

The product does not properly account for differences in case sensitivity when accessing or determining the properties of a resource, leading to inconsistent results.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Avoid making decisions based on names of resources (e.g. files) if those resources can have alternate names.
  • Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174). Such errors could be used to bypass allowlist validation schemes by introducing dangerous inputs after they have been checked.

More Improper Handling of Case Sensitivity vulnerabilities (CWE-178)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: poc, automatable: yes, technical impact: partial).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in xmldom

All xmldom vulnerabilities

Recent Improper Handling of Case Sensitivity vulnerabilities

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