lxml: Default configuration of iterparse() and ETCompatXMLParser() allows XXE to local files
Date: 2026-04
Affected: pip/lxml
Attack vector: other
Category: vulnerability-disclosure
Severity: High
CVE: CVE-2026-41066
CWE: CWE-611
CVSS: 7.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N)

### Impact Using either of the two parsers in the default configuration (with `resolve_entities=True`) allows untrusted XML input to read local files. ### Patches lxml 6.1.0 changes the default to `resolve_entities='internal'`, thus disallowing local file access by default. ### Workarounds Setting the `resolve_entities` option explicitly to `resolve_entities='internal'` or `resolve_entities=False` disables the local file access. ### Resources Original report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/lxml/+bug/2146291 The default option was changed to `resolve_entities='internal'` for the normal XML and HTML parsers in lxml 5.0. The default was not changed for `iterparse()` and `ETCompatXMLParser()` at the time. lxml 6.1 makes the safe option the default for all parsers.


Mitigations:

Architectural layers (MAESTRO):