CWE-776 74 CVEs MITRE definition ↗

CWE-776: Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion')

Overview

CWE-776 (Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion')) documents a weakness type used across vulnerability databases and security assessments. Use the sections below for definition, context, and mapped CVEs.

Security impact
Security impact: Depends on product and context; use CVE records, severity scores, and MITRE guidance to prioritize.

Description

The product uses XML documents and allows their structure to be defined with a Document Type Definition (DTD), but it does not properly control the number of recursive definitions of entities.

Applicable platforms

Kind Name Class Prevalence OS / CPE
language Not Language-Specific Undetermined
language XML Undetermined
technology Not Technology-Specific Undetermined

Related CVEs in this database

These CVEs are mapped to this weakness in this database and kept for traceability and search.

CVE Published Summary
CVE-2026-23822 2026-05-12 A vulnerability in the XML handling component of AOS-8 DHCP services could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to trigger a denial-of-service condition. Successful exploitation could allow an att…
CVE-2026-31248 2026-05-11 Docling's METS GBS backend is vulnerable to XML Entity Expansion (XXE) attacks thru 2.61.0. The backend extracts and validates XML files from .tar.gz archives using etree.fromstring() without disablin…
CVE-2026-42212 2026-05-08 SolidCAM-GPPL-IDE is an unofficial, independently developed extension, Postprocessor IDE for SolidCAM. From version 1.0.0 to before version 1.0.2, Opening a .gpp file in the SolidCAM Postprocessor IDE…
CVE-2026-40260 2026-04-17 pypdf is a free and open-source pure-python PDF library. In versions prior to 6.10.0, manipulated XMP metadata entity declarations can exhaust RAM. An attacker who exploits this vulnerability can craf…
CVE-2026-33036 2026-03-20 fast-xml-parser allows users to process XML from JS object without C/C++ based libraries or callbacks. Versions 4.0.0-beta.3 through 5.5.5 contain a bypass vulnerability where numeric character refere…
CVE-2026-29074 2026-03-06 SVGO, short for SVG Optimizer, is a Node.js library and command-line application for optimizing SVG files. From version 2.1.0 to before version 2.8.1, from version 3.0.0 to before version 3.3.3, and b…
CVE-2026-27807 2026-03-06 MarkUs is a web application for the submission and grading of student assignments. Prior to version 2.9.4, MarkUs allows course instructors to upload YAML files to create/update various entities (e.g.…
CVE-2026-26278 2026-02-19 fast-xml-parser allows users to validate XML, parse XML to JS object, or build XML from JS object without C/C++ based libraries and no callback. In versions 4.1.3 through 5.3.5, the XML parser can be …
CVE-2025-20369 2025-10-01 In Splunk Enterprise versions below 9.4.4, 9.3.6, and 9.2.8, and Splunk Cloud Platform versions below 9.3.2411.108, 9.3.2408.118 and 9.2.2406.123, a low privilege user that does not hold the "admin" o…
CVE-2025-5466 2025-08-12 XEE in Ivanti Connect Secure before 22.7R2.8 or 22.8R2, Ivanti Policy Secure before 22.7R1.5, Ivanti ZTA Gateway before 22.8R2.3-723 and Ivanti Neurons for Secure Access before 22.8R1.4 (Fix deployed …
CVE-2019-19144 2025-08-01 XML External Entity Injection vulnerability in Quantum DXi6702 2.3.0.3 (11449-53631 Build304) devices via rest/Users?action=authenticate.
CVE-2025-3225 2025-07-07 An XML Entity Expansion vulnerability, also known as a 'billion laughs' attack, exists in the sitemap parser of the run-llama/llama_index repository, specifically affecting version v0.12.21. This vuln…
CVE-2025-0617 2025-01-29 An attacker with access to an HX 10.0.0 and previous versions, may send specially-crafted data to the HX console. The malicious detection would then trigger file parsing containing exponential entit…
CVE-2024-43398 2024-08-22 REXML is an XML toolkit for Ruby. The REXML gem before 3.3.6 has a DoS vulnerability when it parses an XML that has many deep elements that have same local name attributes. If you need to parse untrus…
CVE-2024-28982 2024-06-26 Hitachi Vantara Pentaho Business Analytics Server versions before 10.1.0.0 and 9.3.0.7, including 8.3.x do not correctly protect the ACL service endpoint of the Pentaho User Console against XML Extern…
CVE-2024-27142 2024-06-14 Toshiba printers use XML communication for the API endpoint provided by the printer. For the endpoint, XML parsing library is used and it is vulnerable to a time-based blind XML External Entity (XXE) …
CVE-2024-27141 2024-06-14 Toshiba printers use XML communication for the API endpoint provided by the printer. For the endpoint, XML parsing library is used and it is vulnerable to a time-based blind XML External Entity (XXE) …
CVE-2022-28652 2024-06-04 ~/.config/apport/settings parsing is vulnerable to "billion laughs" attack
CVE-2024-1455 2024-03-26 A vulnerability in the langchain-ai/langchain repository allows for a Billion Laughs Attack, a type of XML External Entity (XXE) exploitation. By nesting multiple layers of entities within an XML docu…
CVE-2024-28757 2024-03-10 libexpat through 2.6.1 allows an XML Entity Expansion attack when there is isolated use of external parsers (created via XML_ExternalEntityParserCreate).

Previous names

  • Unrestricted Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Bomb') (2013-02-21)

Content submission

Name
CWE Content Team
Organization
MITRE
Date
2009-06-30
Version
1.5

Content modifications

Date Name Version Importance Comment
2010-02-16 CWE Content Team 1.8 updated Taxonomy_Mappings
2010-12-13 CWE Content Team 1.11 updated Relationships
2011-06-01 CWE Content Team 1.13 updated Common_Consequences
2012-05-11 CWE Content Team 2.2 updated Demonstrative_Examples
2013-02-21 CWE Content Team 2.4 updated Alternate_Terms, Applicable_Platforms, Description, Name, Observed_Examples, References, Relationships
2017-11-08 CWE Content Team 3.0 updated Likelihood_of_Exploit, References
2018-03-27 CWE Content Team 3.1 updated Relationships
2019-06-20 CWE Content Team 3.3 updated Relationships, Type
2020-02-24 CWE Content Team 4.0 updated Applicable_Platforms, Relationships
2021-10-28 CWE Content Team 4.6 updated Relationships
2022-04-28 CWE Content Team 4.7 updated Related_Attack_Patterns
2023-01-31 CWE Content Team 4.10 updated Description
2023-04-27 CWE Content Team 4.11 updated Detection_Factors, References, Relationships
2023-06-29 CWE Content Team 4.12 updated Mapping_Notes
2025-12-11 CWE Content Team 4.19 updated Applicable_Platforms, Relationships, Weakness_Ordinalities
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