CVE-2025-66578

robrichards/xmlseclibs has an Libxml2 Canonicalization error which can bypass Digest/Signature validation

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: December 9, 2025 at 02:41 AM UTC
Updated: October 7, 2026 at 08:10 PM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsXmlseclibsXmlseclibs

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

xmlseclibs is a library written in PHP for working with XML Encryption and Signatures. Versions 3.1.3 contain an authentication bypass vulnerability due to a flaw in the libxml2 canonicalization process during document transformation. When libxml2’s canonicalization is invoked on an invalid XML input, it may return an empty string rather than a canonicalized node. xmlseclibs then proceeds to compute the DigestValue over this empty string, treating it as if canonicalization succeeded. This issue is fixed in version 3.1.4. Workarounds include treating canonicalization failures (exceptions or nil/empty outputs) as fatal and aborting validation, and/or adding explicit checks to reject when canonicalize returns nil/empty or raises errors.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 3.1.4
Affected range stops below 3.1.4, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-248

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