CVE-2024-46984 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in de.gematik.refv.commons:commons. A fix is available for de.gematik.refv.commons:commons — see the affected versions and patch details below.
XML External Entity Reference (XXE) vulnerability can lead to a Server Side Request Forgery attack in gematik app-referencevalidator
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-46984.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-46984 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
de.gematik.refv.commons:commonsReal-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
Impact
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.
Patches
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.
Workarounds
A pre-processing or manual analysis of input XML resources on existence of DTD definitions or external entities can mitigate the problem.
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | de.gematik.refv.commons:commons | all versions | 2.5.1de.gematik.refv.commons:commons:2.5.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for de.gematik.refv.commons:commons, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update de.gematik.refv.commons:commons to 2.5.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-46984 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-46984 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-46984. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-46984 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-46984 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.