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http4s-scala-xml has an XML External Entity (XXE) processing issueGHSA-cjx3-73hr-rpw7

CRITICALFix: http4s/http4s-scala-xml@326f965

GHSA-cjx3-73hr-rpw7 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.3) XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.12. A fix is available for org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.12 — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Also known asCVE-2026-61741
Published
Updated
Affected
5 pkgs
Patched
5 / 5
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 24, 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-cjx3-73hr-rpw7.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs21th percentile — riskier than 21% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.26%0.53%0.79%0.3%0.3%Oct 26Oct 26

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

How urgent is this, really

GHSA-cjx3-73hr-rpw7 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

5 pkgs affected
☕org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.12☕org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.13☕org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.13☕org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_3☕org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_3

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

http4s-scala-xml provides EntityDecoder[F, scala.xml.Elem] instances that parse XML message bodies. These decoders used a javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory obtained from SAXParserFactory.newInstance without any security configuration. With the JDK's default settings, the parser resolves DOCTYPE declarations, external general and parameter entities, and external DTDs.

An application that uses these decoders to parse untrusted XML is vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) attacks. An attacker can craft a request that:

  • discloses local files readable by the service process,
  • performs server-side request forgery (SSRF) against internal network resources, and/or
  • causes denial of service through entity expansion.

Impact

Any service that derives an XML EntityDecoder from this library and parses attacker-controlled input is affected.

Patches

The default SAXParserFactory is now hardened:

  • secure processing is enabled
  • DOCTYPE declarations are disallowed
  • external general/parameter entities and external DTD loading are disabled
  • DTD URIs are not resolved
  • XInclude is disabled.

These defaults match scala.xml.XMLLoader's defaults since 2.0.0.

Workarounds

Before upgrading, override ElemInstances#saxFactory with a hardened factory.

  val secured = new ElemInstances {
    override protected val saxFactory = {
      val f = javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory.newInstance
      f.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl", true)
      // etc.
      f
    }
  }
  import secured._

Affected Packages

5 total 5 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
☕Mavenorg.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.12all versions0.24.1org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.12:0.24.1
☕Mavenorg.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.13all versions0.24.1org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.13:0.24.1
☕Mavenorg.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.13≥ 1.0.0-M1&&< 1.0.0-M391.0.0-M39org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.13:1.0.0-M39
☕Mavenorg.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_3all versions0.24.1org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_3:0.24.1
☕Mavenorg.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_3≥ 1.0.0-M1&&< 1.0.0-M391.0.0-M39org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_3:1.0.0-M39

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency
  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.12, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update org.http4s:http4s-scala-xml_2.12 to 0.24.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-cjx3-73hr-rpw7 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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

http4s-scala-xml provides `EntityDecoder[F, scala.xml.Elem]` instances that parse XML message bodies. These decoders used a `javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory` obtained from `SAXParserFactory.newInstance` without any security configuration. With the JDK's default settings, the parser resolves DOCTYPE declarations, external general and parameter entities, and external DTDs. An application that uses these decoders to parse untrusted XML is vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) attacks. An attacker can craft a request that: - discloses local files readable by the service process, - perform
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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http4s-scala-xml has an XML External Entity (XXE)…