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dom4j allows External Entities by default which might enable XXE attacks

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jun 5, 2020 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Jan 27, 2023

Package

maven dom4j:dom4j (Maven)

Affected versions

<= 1.6.1

Patched versions

None
maven org.dom4j:dom4j (Maven)
< 2.0.3
>= 2.1.0, < 2.1.3
2.0.3
2.1.3

Description

dom4j before 2.1.3 allows external DTDs and External Entities by default, which might enable XXE attacks. However, there is popular external documentation from OWASP showing how to enable the safe, non-default behavior in any application that uses dom4j.

Note: This advisory applies to dom4j:dom4j version 1.x legacy artifacts. To resolve this a change to the latest version of org.dom4j:dom4j is recommended.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database May 1, 2020
Reviewed Jun 4, 2020
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jun 5, 2020
Last updated Jan 27, 2023

Severity

Critical
9.8
/ 10

CVSS base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.655%
(80th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2020-10683

GHSA ID

GHSA-hwj3-m3p6-hj38

Source code

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