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GHSA-5fg8-2547-mr8q

MediumCVSS 6.5 / 10
Published Aug 3, 2021·Last modified Mar 13, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Impact

xmldom versions 0.6.0 and older do not correctly escape special characters when serializing elements removed from their ancestor. This may lead to unexpected syntactic changes during XML processing in some downstream applications.

Patches

Update to one of the fixed versions of @xmldom/xmldom (>=0.7.0)

See issue #271 for the status of publishing xmldom to npm or join #270 for Q&A/discussion until it's resolved.

Workarounds

Downstream applications can validate the input and reject the maliciously crafted documents.

References

Similar to this one reported on the Go standard library:

  • https://mattermost.com/blog/coordinated-disclosure-go-xml-vulnerabilities/
  • https://mattermost.com/blog/securing-xml-implementations-across-the-web/

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

  • Open an issue in xmldom/xmldom
  • Email us: send an email to all addresses that are shown by npm owner ls @xmldom/xmldom
Risk Scores
Base Score
6.5

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a low impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a low impact on the integrity of the data.

Threat Intelligence
6.0

Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.

EPSS
1.35%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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