CVE-2018-11796

In Apache Tika 1.19 (CVE-2018-11761), we added an entity expansion limit for XML parsing. However, Tika reuses SAXParsers and calls reset() after each parse, which, for Xerces2 parsers, as per the documentation, removes the user-specified SecurityManager and thus removes entity expansion limits after the first parse. Apache Tika versions from 0.1 to 1.19 are therefore still vulnerable to entity expansions which can lead to a denial of service attack. Users should upgrade to 1.19.1 or later.

Published: 2018-10-09 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-11796 is rated Moderate Risk (63.5/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.94%). EPSS rose +2.74% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2018-11796

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 2026-01-29 1.20% 3.94% +2.74%
2 2026-01-17 1.92% 1.20% -0.72%
3 2026-01-06 — 1.92% —

Full EPSS history (21 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-11796

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-11796

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2018-11796

GHSA-h8q5-g2cj-qr5h · Severity: high · Ecosystem: maven — Apache Tika is vulnerable to entity expansions which can lead to a denial of service attack

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-11796

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2018-11796 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (tika), 2 status rows across 2 suites (bullseye, sid): resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-11796
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-11796
suse medium CVE-2018-11796 severity moderate: SUSE including 1 source package names (tika-core), 2 product×package rows across 2 product lines (SUSE Manager Server 3.2, SUSE Manager Server Module 4.0): Known Not Affected 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-11796/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-11796 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (tika), 19 status rows across 19 suites (bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 7, not-affected 6, needed 4, DNE 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-11796

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-11796

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache tika >= 0.1, <= 1.19 cpe:2.3:a:apache:tika:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-11796

cvelogic Threat Intelligence