CVE-2017-5644

Apache POI in versions prior to release 3.15 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a specially crafted OOXML file, aka an XML Entity Expansion (XEE) attack.

Published: 2017-03-24 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-5644 is rated Moderate Risk (46.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.66%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-5644

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 2026-03-04 0.79% 0.66% -0.13%
2 2026-03-01 0.66% 0.79% +0.13%
3 2026-02-04 — 0.66% —

Full EPSS history (47 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-5644

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
7.1 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 8.6 6.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-5644

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2017-5644

GHSA-78vv-qj73-h9m5 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs in Apache POI

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-5644

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-5644 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libapache-poi-java), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-5644
ubuntu medium CVE-2017-5644 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libapache-poi-java), 23 status rows across 23 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, precise, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 16, ignored 4, DNE 1, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-5644

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-5644

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache poi <= 3.14 cpe:2.3:a:apache:poi:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-5644

cvelogic Threat Intelligence