How severe is GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q?

GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q has a CVSS score of 8.6/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q?

GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q affects the following packages: de.gematik.refv.commons:commons (Maven). Ecosystems affected: Maven.

How do I fix GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q?

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 GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q in my Maven dependencies?

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.

How do I mitigate GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q 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 GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q 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 GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q?

GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 51th 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 GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q?

GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q is classified as XML External Entity (XXE) (CWE-611). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q was published on September 19, 2024 and was last updated on September 20, 2024. 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

HIGH severity

Gematik Referenzvalidator has an XXE vulnerability that can lead to a Server Side Request Forgery attackGHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q

HIGHFix: gematik/app-referencevalidator@d6d2761

GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q 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.

Also known asCVE-2024-46984

Published

Sep 19, 2024

Updated

Sep 20, 2024

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 10, 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 GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs51th percentile — riskier than 51% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

☕de.gematik.refv.commons:commons

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

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

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
☕Maven	`de.gematik.refv.commons:commons`	all versions	2.5.1`de.gematik.refv.commons:commons:2.5.1`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

reference validatorgematik

< 2.5.1

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
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 GHSA-68j8-fp38-p48q 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact The profile location routine in the referencevalidator commons package is vulnerable to [XML External Entities](https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/2017/A4_2017-XML_External_Entities_(XXE)) 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](https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Server_Side_Request_Forgery) attack. The vulnerability impacts applications which use referencevalidator to process XML resources from untrusted sources. ##