How severe is CVE-2026-44020?

CVE-2026-44020 has a CVSS score of 7.5/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2026-44020?

CVE-2026-44020 affects the following packages: docling (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2026-44020?

Update docling to 2.74.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-44020 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2026-44020 in my PyPI dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2026-44020 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Restrict outbound requests from the affected component to an allowlist of hosts, block access to link-local and internal address ranges at the network layer, and require authentication on internal services so a forged request cannot reach them unauthenticated.

Is CVE-2026-44020 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2026-44020 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-2026-44020?

CVE-2026-44020 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 47th 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-2026-44020?

CVE-2026-44020 is classified as CWE-776 (CWE-776), XML External Entity (XXE) (CWE-611). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2026-44020 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2026-44020 was published on June 24, 2026 and was last updated on August 30, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍

🐍 PyPI

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2026-44020 — docling

HIGH

CVE-2026-44020 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-776 vulnerability in docling. A fix is available for docling — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Docling: Unsafe XML Entity Expansion in USPTO Patent Backend

Also known asGHSA-m88r-rg27-5xfgPYSEC-2026-240

Published

Jun 24, 2026

Updated

Aug 30, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Sep 27, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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-2026-44020.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs47th percentile — riskier than 47% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2026-44020 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 379,842 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

🐍docling

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

Description

Impact

The USPTO patent XML parser used the standard xml.sax.parseString() without protection against XML External Entity (XXE) attacks. An attacker could craft malicious USPTO patent XML files with external entity references that could:

Read arbitrary files from the server filesystem
Perform Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) attacks
Cause denial of service through entity expansion (Billion Laughs attack)

The vulnerability affects three USPTO patent format parsers: ICE (v4.x), Grant v2.5, and Application v1.x.

Patches

Fixed in version 2.74.0. The parser now uses defusedxml.sax.make_parser() with secure configuration that blocks external entity resolution (feature_external_ges=False, feature_external_pes=False) while allowing DTD declarations required by USPTO files. This prevents XXE attacks while maintaining compatibility with the USPTO XML format.

Workarounds

Avoid processing USPTO patent XML files from untrusted sources. Implement resource limits (memory, CPU time) when processing patent documents.

References

Fix release: v2.74.0

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`docling`	≥ 2.13.0&&< 2.74.0	2.74.0`pip install --upgrade 'docling==2.74.0'`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

doclingdocling

≥ 2.13.0 && < 2.74.0

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for docling, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update docling to 2.74.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-44020 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Restrict outbound requests from the affected component to an allowlist of hosts, block access to link-local and internal address ranges at the network layer, and require authentication on internal services so a forged request cannot reach them unauthenticated.

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 HatImportant

This is an Important vulnerability in docling, as shipped with Red Hat OpenShift AI, due to an XML External Entity (XXE) flaw in its USPTO patent XML parser. An attacker could exploit this by providing specially crafted XML files, leading to unauthorized access to local files, Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), or…

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4	`rhoai/odh-autorag-rhel9:1786612637`	RHSA-2026:60520

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact The USPTO patent XML parser used the standard `xml.sax.parseString()` without protection against XML External Entity (XXE) attacks. An attacker could craft malicious USPTO patent XML files with external entity references that could: - Read arbitrary files from the server filesystem - Perform Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) attacks - Cause denial of service through entity expansion (Billion Laughs attack) The vulnerability affects three USPTO patent format parsers: ICE (v4.x), Grant v2.5, and Application v1.x. ### Patches Fixed in version 2.74.0. The parser now uses `defusedxml.