XML External Entity (XXE) Vulnerability

Description

XML External Entity (XXE) attacks can occur when an XML parser supports XML entities while processing XML received from an untrusted source. This can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, denial of service, or other malicious activities.

Examples

Insecure Code

val reader = XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader
reader.parse(new InputSource(new StringReader(xmlString)))

Secure Code

val reader = XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader
reader.setFeature(XMLConstants.FEATURE_SECURE_PROCESSING, true)
reader.parse(new InputSource(new StringReader(xmlString)))

Remediation

Set the FEATURE_SECURE_PROCESSING feature to true on the XMLReader instance to prevent XXE attacks.

Rule Details

Field	Value
ID	CODE-0091
Category	Injection
Severity	MEDIUM
CWE	CWE-611
Confidence	HIGH
Impact	HIGH
Likelihood	MEDIUM
Exploitability	MODERATE
Tags	XXE, XML Injection
OWASP	N/A

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