CVE-2026-34480 | Apache Log4j Core: Silent log event loss in XmlLayout due to unescaped XML 1.0 forbidden characters

Apache Log4j Core's XmlLayout https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/layouts.html#XmlLayout , in versions up to and including 2.25.3, fails to sanitize characters forbidden by the XML 1.0 specification https://www.w3.org/TR/xml/#charsets producing invalid XML output whenever a log message or MDC value contains such characters. The impact depends on the StAX implementation in use: * JRE built-in StAX: Forbidden characters are silently written to the output, producing malformed XML. Conforming parsers must reject such documents with a fatal error, which may cause downstream log-processing systems to drop the affected records. * Alternative StAX implementations (e.g., Woodstox https://github.com/FasterXML/woodstox , a transitive dependency of the Jackson XML Dataformat module): An exception is thrown during the logging call, and the log event is never delivered to its intended appender, only to Log4j's internal status logger. Users are advised to upgrade to Apache Log4j Core 2.25.4, which corrects this issue by sanitizing forbidden characters before XML output.

Published: 2026-04-10 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-34480 is rated Moderate Risk (47.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.86%). 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-2026-34480

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 0.03% 0.86% +0.83%
2 2026-05-22 0.16% 0.03% -0.13%
3 2026-04-16 — 0.16% —

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-34480

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.9 4.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N)
No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N)
No availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:L)
Limited integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:X)
Not defined: no reliable threat intelligence; scoring assumes the worst case (equivalent to Attacked).
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:X)
Not evaluated.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X)
Not evaluated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:X)
Not evaluated.
Value density (supplemental) (V:X)
Not evaluated.
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:X)
Not evaluated.
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:X)
Not evaluated.
 — — [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-34480

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-34480

GHSA-3pxv-7cmr-fjr4 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Apache Log4j Core: Silent log event loss in XmlLayout due to unescaped XML 1.0 forbidden characters

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-34480

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-34480 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (apache-log4j1.2, apache-log4j2), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 10. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-34480
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-34480
suse medium CVE-2026-34480 severity moderate: SUSE including 15 source package names (log4j, log4j-2.20.0-150200.4.33.1, …), 23 product×package rows across 8 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4-LTSS, … (8 product lines)): Fixed 9, First Fixed 8, Known Not Affected 6. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-34480/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-34480 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (apache-log4j1.2, apache-log4j2), 15 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 15. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-34480

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-34480

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache log4j >= 2.0, < 2.25.4 cpe:2.3:a:apache:log4j:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache log4j 3.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:log4j:3.0.0:alpha1:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache log4j 3.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:log4j:3.0.0:alpha1_rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache log4j 3.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:log4j:3.0.0:alpha1_rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache log4j 3.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:log4j:3.0.0:beta1:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache log4j 3.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:log4j:3.0.0:beta2:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache log4j 3.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:log4j:3.0.0:beta3:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-34480

cvelogic Threat Intelligence