The original libxml2 maintainer has released libxml2-ee, an enterprise-grade XML toolkit that delivers up to 10x faster performance through SIMD acceleration. This C-based library maintains API compatibility while addressing critical security vulnerabilities and adding modern build system support. The toolkit is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.

Key improvements include fixing all denial-of-service issues in the core parser with guaranteed linear behavior and implementing 64-bit hardening. The developers removed unsafe string functions from internal operations and added an optional API-compatible 64-bit-safe mode. The build system now uses Meson as the canonical approach, with support for CMake and GNU Autotools, though Schematron validation and Python bindings have been removed.

Security considerations are central to libxml2-ee's design. The maintainers provide a detailed security policy outlining unsafe operations when processing untrusted input, including DTD validation and XML Schema processing. Users can build the library with various features enabled or disabled, from canonical XML support to compression libraries. aevum GmbH serves as the open-source software steward under the EU CyberResilience Act, though the project does not accept code contributions directly.