CycloneDX Core (Java): BOM validation is vulnerable to XML External Entity injection
Date: 2025-11
Affected: maven/org.cyclonedx:cyclonedx-core-java
Attack vector: other
Category: vulnerability-disclosure
Severity: High
CVE: CVE-2025-64518
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 The XML [`Validator`](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/javax/xml/validation/Validator.html) used by cyclonedx-core-java was not configured securely, making the library vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) injection. The fix for GHSA-683x-4444-jxh8 / CVE-2024-38374 has been incomplete in that it only fixed *parsing* of XML BOMs, but not *validation*. ### Patches The vulnerability has been fixed in cyclonedx-core-java version 11.0.1. ### Workarounds If feasible, applications can reject XML documents before handing them to cyclonedx-core-java for validation. This may be an option if incoming CycloneDX BOMs are known to be in JSON format. ### References * The issue was introduced via https://github.com/CycloneDX/cyclonedx-core-java/commit/162aa594f347b3f612fe0a45071693c3cd398ce9 * The issue was fixed via https://github.com/CycloneDX/cyclonedx-core-java/pull/737 * https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/XML_External_Entity_Prevention_Cheat_Sheet.html#schemafactory


Mitigations:

Architectural layers (MAESTRO):