OWSLib vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) InjectionGHSA-8h9c-r582-mggc
HIGHFix: geopython/OWSLib#863GHSA-8h9c-r582-mggc is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in owslib. A fix is available for owslib — see the affected versions and patch details below.
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-8h9c-r582-mggc.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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
owslibReal-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
OWSLib's XML parser (which supports both lxml and xml.etree) does not disable entity resolution for lxml, and could lead to arbitrary file reads from an attacker-controlled XML payload. This affects all XML parsing in the codebase.
Patches
- Use only lxml for XML handling, adding
resolve_entities=Falsetolxml's parser: https://github.com/geopython/OWSLib/pull/863
Workarounds
patch_well_known_namespaces(etree)
etree.set_default_parser(
parser=etree.XMLParser(resolve_entities=False)
)
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | owslib | all versions | 0.28.1pip install --upgrade 'owslib==0.28.1' |
Affected Products
owslibosgeoDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for owslib, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update owslib to 0.28.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-8h9c-r582-mggc 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-8h9c-r582-mggc in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.