GHSA-84p2-vf58-xhxv — c3p0
HIGHGHSA-84p2-vf58-xhxv is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-776 vulnerability in com.mchange:c3p0. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for com.mchange:c3p0 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Billion laughs attack in c3p0
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
GHSA-84p2-vf58-xhxv 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 379,145 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
com.mchange:c3p0Real-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
c3p0 version < 0.9.5.4 may be exploited by a billion laughs attack when loading XML configuration due to missing protections against recursive entity expansion when loading configuration.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.mchange:c3p0 | all versions | 0.9.5.4com.mchange:c3p0:0.9.5.4 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for com.mchange:c3p0, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update com.mchange:c3p0 to 0.9.5.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-84p2-vf58-xhxv 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 GHSA-84p2-vf58-xhxv can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-84p2-vf58-xhxv. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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 Hat Satellite 6 is not vulnerable to this issue, because the candlepin component who uses the c3p0 jar never passes a XML configuration file to c3p0, even though it includes a vulnerable version of the latter. Since this issue requires a XML files to be loaded by c3p0, an exploitation path doesn't exist.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Fuse 7.6.0 | c3p0 | RHSA-2020:0983 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-84p2-vf58-xhxv in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-84p2-vf58-xhxv across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.