When reading text nodes from an XML document, the REXML parser can be coerced in to allocating extremely large string objects which can consume all of the memory on a machine, causing a denial of service.

Jruby resolves this bug in version 1.7.3 as noted in https://www.jruby.org/2013/02/21/jruby-1-7-3.html

References

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2013-1821
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=914716
• https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Support/Advisories/MGASA-2013-0092
• http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=702525
• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2013-04/msg00001.html
• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2013-04/msg00015.html
• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2013-04/msg00034.html
• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2013-04/msg00036.html
• http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-1147.html
• http://svn.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi?view=revision&revision=39384
• http://www.debian.org/security/2013/dsa-2738
• http://www.debian.org/security/2013/dsa-2809
• http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2013:124
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/03/06/5
• http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2013/02/22/rexml-dos-2013-02-22/
• http://www.slackware.com/security/viewer.php?l=slackware-security&y=2013&m=slackware-security.426862
• http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1780-1
• https://www.jruby.org/2013/02/21/jruby-1-7-3.html