How severe is CVE-2020-14338?

CVE-2020-14338 has a CVSS score of 5.3/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-14338?

CVE-2020-14338 affects the following packages: xerces:xercesImpl (Maven). Ecosystems affected: Maven.

How do I fix CVE-2020-14338?

Update xerces:xercesImpl to 2.12.0.sp3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-14338 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2020-14338 in my Maven dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for xerces:xercesImpl, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-14338 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

Is CVE-2020-14338 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2020-14338 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2020-14338?

CVE-2020-14338 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.3%, placing it in the 69th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2020-14338?

CVE-2020-14338 is classified as Improper Input Validation (CWE-20). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2020-14338 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-14338 was published on September 17, 2020 and was last updated on July 8, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

☕

☕ Maven

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2020-14338 — xercesImpl

MEDIUM

CVE-2020-14338 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in xerces:xercesImpl. A fix is available for xerces:xercesImpl — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Improper Input Validation in Xerces

Also known asGHSA-w4jq-qh47-hvjq

Published

Sep 17, 2020

Updated

Jul 8, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Oct 11, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs69th percentile — riskier than 69% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-14338 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,987 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

☕xerces:xercesImpl

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

A flaw was found in Wildfly's implementation of Xerces, specifically in the way the XMLSchemaValidator class in the JAXP component of Wildfly enforced the "use-grammar-pool-only" feature. This flaw allows a specially-crafted XML file to manipulate the validation process in certain cases. This issue is the same flaw as CVE-2020-14621, which affected OpenJDK, and uses a similar code. This flaw affects all Xerces JBoss versions before 2.12.0.SP3.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
☕Maven	`xerces:xercesImpl`	all versions	2.12.0.sp3`xerces:xercesImpl:2.12.0.sp3`

Affected Products

1 product · 3 configurations

Application

xercesredhat

< 2.12.0

1 version

2.12.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for xerces:xercesImpl, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update xerces:xercesImpl to 2.12.0.sp3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-14338 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

Fixing This On Your OS

If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.

Red HatModerate

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
EAP 7.3.3	`xercesImpl`	RHSA-2020:4247
Red Hat Fuse 7.9	`xercesImpl`	RHSA-2021:3140
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 for RHEL 6	`eap7-activemq-artemis-0:2.9.0-5.redhat_00011.1.el6eap`	RHSA-2020:4244
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 for RHEL 7	`eap7-activemq-artemis-0:2.9.0-5.redhat_00011.1.el7eap`	RHSA-2020:4246
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 for RHEL 8	`eap7-activemq-artemis-0:2.9.0-5.redhat_00011.1.el8eap`	RHSA-2020:4245
Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.4.3	`xercesImpl`	RHSA-2020:4931
RHDM 7.10.0	`xercesImpl`	RHSA-2021:0603
RHPAM 7.10.0	`xercesImpl`	RHSA-2021:0600

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2020-14338 in your dependencies?

Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works

CVSS Score

5.3/10CVSS v3 base

Vector breakdown

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

None

Integrity

Low

Availability

None

Raw vector

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

CWE Classification

CWE-20Improper Input Validation

Weaponization

No known public exploit tooling found.

Timeline

Disclosed

Sep 17, 2020

Last updated

Jul 8, 2026

Identifiers

CVE-2020-14338

GHSA-w4jq-qh47-hvjq

References

Advisorynvd.nist.gov Reportbugzilla.redhat.com Weblists.apache.org Weblists.apache.org

Related vulnerabilities

Also affects xercesImpl

This CVE is medium severity; 4 of 4 other CVEs affecting xercesImpl are rated as high or higher (top: high).

CVE-2013-4002CVE-2022-23437CVE-2009-2625CVE-2012-0881

Same weakness: CWE-20

This CVE is medium severity; 4 of 4 other CVEs with CWE-20 are rated as high or higher (top: high).

CVE-2026-61794CVE-2026-81875CVE-2026-81876CVE-2026-61793Browse all CWE-20

Provenance

Sources

OSV.devNVDFIRST.org (EPSS)

Last verifiedJul 8, 2026

CVE-2020-14338 — xercesImpl

EPSS Exploitation Probability

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

Description

Affected Packages

Affected Products

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

Fixing This On Your OS

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2020-14338 in your dependencies?