CVE-2006-10003
Published: 19 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2006-10003 is a critical-severity Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-122) vulnerability in Toddr Xml\. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 39.7th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2006-10003 is an off-by-one heap buffer overflow in the st_serial_stack function of XML::Parser versions through 2.47 for Perl. The vulnerability arises when stackptr equals stacksize - 1; in this case, the stack is not expanded, and the subsequent increment of stackptr to stacksize results in a write just outside the allocated buffer. It manifests when parsing an XML file with very deep element nesting and is classified under CWE-122 (heap-based buffer overflow) and CWE-193 (off-by-one error).
The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating it is exploitable remotely over the network with low attack complexity, requiring no privileges or user interaction, and unchanged scope. A remote unauthenticated attacker can supply a specially crafted XML document featuring excessive nesting depth to trigger the heap overflow, potentially achieving high-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability violations such as arbitrary code execution.
Advisories and patches address mitigation through updating XML::Parser. A fix is provided in the GitHub commit at https://github.com/cpan-authors/XML-Parser/commit/3eb9cc95420fa0c3f76947c4708962546bf27cfd.patch, with discussions in the repository issue https://github.com/cpan-authors/XML-Parser/issues/39, CPAN RT ticket #19860 at https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=19860, the oss-security mailing list at http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/03/19/2, and Debian LTS announcement at https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2026/04/msg00002.html.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2006-7234
Vulnerability details
XML::Parser versions through 2.47 for Perl has an off-by-one heap buffer overflow in st_serial_stack. In the case (stackptr == stacksize - 1), the stack will NOT be expanded. Then the new value will be written at location (++stackptr), which equals…
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stacksize and therefore falls just outside the allocated buffer. The bug can be observed when parsing an XML file with very deep element nesting
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Remote unauthenticated heap buffer overflow in XML parser library enables arbitrary code execution via crafted input over the network, directly mapping to exploitation of public-facing applications.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly mandates timely identification, prioritization, and remediation of software flaws like the heap buffer overflow in XML::Parser through patching to version beyond 2.47.
Implements memory protection mechanisms such as address space layout randomization, data execution prevention, and heap hardening to mitigate exploitation of the off-by-one heap buffer overflow.
Requires validation of XML inputs to detect and reject specially crafted documents with excessive nesting depth that trigger the st_serial_stack overflow.