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BOM validation is vulnerable to XML External Entity injection

High
jkowalleck published GHSA-6fhj-vr9j-g45r Nov 10, 2025

Package

maven org.cyclonedx:cyclonedx-core-java (Maven)

Affected versions

<11.0.1

Patched versions

11.0.1

Description

Impact

The XML Validator used by cyclonedx-core-java was not configured securely, making the library vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) injection.

The fix for GHSA-683x-4444-jxh8 / CVE-2024-38374 has been incomplete in that it only fixed parsing of XML BOMs, but not validation.

Patches

The vulnerability has been fixed in cyclonedx-core-java version 11.0.1.

Workarounds

If feasible, applications can reject XML documents before handing them to cyclonedx-core-java for validation.
This may be an option if incoming CycloneDX BOMs are known to be in JSON format.

References

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVE ID

CVE-2025-64518

Weaknesses

Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference

The product processes an XML document that can contain XML entities with URIs that resolve to documents outside of the intended sphere of control, causing the product to embed incorrect documents into its output. Learn more on MITRE.

Credits