The REXML parser in Ruby 1.9.x before 1.9.3 patchlevel 551, 2.0.x before 2.0.0 patchlevel 598, and 2.1.x before 2.1.5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU and memory consumption) a crafted XML document containing an empty string in an entity that is used in a large number of nested entity references, aka an XML Entity Expansion (XEE) attack. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2013-1821 and CVE-2014-8080.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2014-8090 is rated High Exploit Risk (62.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 5.56%, 92th percentile). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | nvd_ref | exploit_tag | Exploit-DB ↗ |
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-06-15 | 11.90% | 5.56% | -6.34% |
| 2 | 2026-05-31 | 12.18% | 11.90% | -0.28% |
| 3 | 2026-05-18 | — | 12.18% | — |
Full EPSS history (25 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 | 2.0 | MEDIUM |
|
10.0 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
gentoo
|
normal | CVE-2014-8090: 1 GLSA(s) (201412-27), 1 atom(s) (dev-lang/ruby); latest impact normal. | https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2014-8090 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2014-8090 |
suse
|
medium | CVE-2014-8090 severity moderate: SUSE including 40 source package names (4.0.0:libruby2_1-2_1-2.1.2-9.1, 4.0.0:ruby2.1-2.1.2-9.1, …), 160 product×package rows across 52 product lines (Container caasp/v4/velum, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, … (52 product lines)): Fixed 160. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2014-8090/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2014-8090 medium priority: Ubuntu including 4 source packages (ruby1.8, ruby1.9.1, ruby2.0, ruby2.1), 28 status rows across 7 suites (lucid, precise, trusty, upstream, utopic, vivid, wily): DNE 12, released 8, ignored 4, needs-triage 4. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2014-8090 |
: <a href="http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/611.html" target="_blank">CWE-611: Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference ('XXE')</a>
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| ruby-lang | ruby | <= 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:*:p550:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p0:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p125:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p194:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p286:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p383:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p385:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p392:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p426:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p429:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p448:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p545:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 1.9.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:1.9.3:p547:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.0.0 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.0.0 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.0.0:p0:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.0.0 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.0.0:p195:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.0.0 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.0.0:p247:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.0.0 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.0.0:p451:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.0.0 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.0.0:p481:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.0.0 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.0.0:p576:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.0.0 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.0.0:p594:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.1.1 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.1.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.1.2 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.1.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.1.3 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.1.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| ruby-lang | ruby | 2.1.4 | cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.1.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |