CVE-2025-6985 | XXE Vulnerability in langchain-ai/langchain

The HTMLSectionSplitter class in langchain-text-splitters version 0.3.8 is vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) attacks due to unsafe XSLT parsing. This vulnerability arises because the class allows the use of arbitrary XSLT stylesheets, which are parsed using lxml.etree.parse() and lxml.etree.XSLT() without any hardening measures. In lxml versions up to 4.9.x, external entities are resolved by default, allowing attackers to read arbitrary local files or perform outbound HTTP(S) fetches. In lxml versions 5.0 and above, while entity expansion is disabled, the XSLT document() function can still read any URI unless XSLTAccessControl is applied. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to gain read-only access to any file the LangChain process can reach, including sensitive files such as SSH keys, environment files, source code, or cloud metadata. No authentication, special privileges, or user interaction are required, and the issue is exploitable in default deployments that enable custom XSLT.

Published: 2025-10-06 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Deferred，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-6985 is rated Moderate Risk (42/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.15%). 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-2025-6985

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 2026-05-12 0.22% 0.15% -0.08%
2 2026-03-04 0.76% 0.22% -0.54%
3 2026-02-05 — 0.76% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-6985

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: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: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: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.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-6985

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-6985

GHSA-m42m-m8cr-8m58 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: pip — LangChain Text Splitters is vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) attacks due to unsafe XSLT parsing

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-6985

vendor priority summary link
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-6985

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-6985

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2025-6985

cvelogic Threat Intelligence