Apache CXF: Prevent unbounded XML document size in StaxUtils by adding default element and character limits

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-108039
StatePUBLISHED
Assignerapache
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-10-09 11:17:02 UTC
Updated2026-10-16 18:04:25 UTC
DescriptionBy default, StaxUtils placed no limit on the total number of elements or the total number of characters in an XML document. A very large request could therefore use a lot of memory and CPU during parsing, especially where CXF builds a DOM from the input (for example SAAJ or WS-Security), and could cause a denial of service when no request size limit was configured. Both limits now have defaults: the maximum element count is 100 × maxChildElements (5,000,000 by default), and the maximum document size is 256M characters. Applications that process larger documents can raise the limits with the org.apache.cxf.stax.maxElementCount and org.apache.cxf.stax.maxXMLCharacters properties. Users are recommended to upgrade to versions 4.2.4 or 4.1.9 or 3.6.13, which fix this issue.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.5 HIGH from ADP

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS: 0.001730000 probability, percentile 0.062360000 (date 2026-10-11)

Problem Types: CWE-776 | CWE-776 CWE-776 Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion')

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1ADPDECLARED7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0Secondary7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

TypeVendorProductVersionUpdateEditionLanguage
Application Apache Cxf All All All All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Apache Software Foundation Apache CXF affected 4.2.0 4.2.4 semver Not specified
CNA Apache Software Foundation Apache CXF affected 4.0.0 4.1.9 semver Not specified
CNA Apache Software Foundation Apache CXF affected 3.6.13 semver Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/10/09/14 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 www.openwall.com Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
lists.apache.org/thread.html/ms2gbpof609o0v1bjlzb1rn7fwh61l1j [email protected] lists.apache.org Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory, Mailing List
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Wanxin Yin (yaklang.io) <[email protected]> (en)

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