CVE-2023-42445 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Gradle

Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. In some cases, when Gradle parses XML files, resolving XML external entities is not disabled. Combined with an Out Of Band XXE attack (OOB-XXE), just parsing XML can lead to exfiltration of local text files to a remote server. Gradle parses XML files for several purposes. Most of the time, Gradle parses XML files it generated or were already present locally. Only Ivy XML descriptors and Maven POM files can be fetched from remote repositories and parsed by Gradle. In Gradle 7.6.3 and 8.4, resolving XML external entities has been disabled for all use cases to protect against this vulnerability. Gradle will now refuse to parse XML files that have XML external entities.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.36%	0.67%	+0.30%
2	2026-05-25	0.33%	0.36%	+0.04%
3	2026-05-22	—	0.33%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.36%

0.67%

+0.30%

2026-05-25

0.33%

0.36%

+0.04%

2026-05-22

—

0.33%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
6.8	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/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:H) Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work. 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:H) Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big 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.	1.6	5.2	[email protected]
5.3	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N` 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:H) Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work. 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:H) Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:N) Service keeps running; no real outage angle.	1.6	3.6	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

6.8

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/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:H): Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:H): Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big 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.

1.6

5.2

[email protected]

5.3

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N 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:H): Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:H): Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N): Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

1.6

3.6

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-42445

vendor	priority	summary	link
`alpine`	—	CVE-2023-42445: 1 source package rows (gradle); 7 state rows across 3 repos (3.18-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 0, open 7.	https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-42445
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2023-42445 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (gradle), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-42445
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-42445
`suse`	medium	—	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-42445/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2023-42445 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (gradle), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 7, ignored 5.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-42445

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-42445

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
gradle	gradle	< 7.6.3	cpe:2.3:a:gradle:gradle::::::::
gradle	gradle	>= 8.0.0, < 8.4.0	cpe:2.3:a:gradle:gradle::::::::

References for CVE-2023-42445

URL	Tags
https://github.com/gradle/gradle/releases/tag/v7.6.3	Release Notes
https://github.com/gradle/gradle/releases/tag/v8.4.0	Release Notes
https://github.com/gradle/gradle/security/advisories/GHSA-mrff-q8qj-xvg8	Vendor Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20231110-0006/	Third Party Advisory

URL

CVE-2023-42445 | Possible local file exfiltration by XML External entity injection

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-42445

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-42445

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-42445

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-42445

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-42445

References for CVE-2023-42445