CVE-2024-46984
The profile location routine in the referencevalidator commons package is vulnerable to `XML External Entities` attack due to insecure defaults of the used Woodstox WstxInputFactory.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.64%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
The reference validator is a tool to perform advanced validation of FHIR resources for TI applications and interoperability standards. The profile location routine in the referencevalidator commons package is vulnerable to `XML External Entities` attack due to insecure defaults of the used Woodstox WstxInputFactory. A malicious XML resource can lead to network requests issued by referencevalidator and thus to a `Server Side Request Forgery` attack. The vulnerability impacts applications which use referencevalidator to process XML resources from untrusted sources. The problem has been patched with the 2.5.1 version of the referencevalidator. Users are strongly recommended to update to this version or a more recent one. A pre-processing or manual analysis of input XML resources on existence of DTD definitions or external entities can mitigate the problem.
- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.64% probability · 49th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-611
- Affected
- gematik/reference validator
- Source
- security-advisories@github.com
References
- https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/XML_External_Entity_Prevention_Cheat_Sheet.html#transformerfactoryTechnical Description
- https://github.com/gematik/app-referencevalidator/releases/tag/2.5.1Release Notes
- https://github.com/gematik/app-referencevalidator/security/advisories/GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48qVendor Advisory
- https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Server_Side_Request_ForgeryTechnical Description
- https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/2017/A4_2017-XML_External_Entities_(XXE)Technical Description
- https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/2017/A4_2017-XML_External_Entities_(XXE)#Technical Description
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.