CVE-2026-40998 PUBLISHED

Jaxp13 XPath XXE via StreamSource and SAXSource

Assigner: vmware
Reserved: 16.04.2026 Published: 11.06.2026 Updated: 11.06.2026

Jaxp13XPathTemplate evaluated XPath expressions for StreamSource and SAXSource inputs using a code path that parsed attacker-controlled XML with the JDK's default DocumentBuilderFactory behavior instead of Spring's hardened parser configuration. Applications that evaluate XPath against untrusted XML payloads could therefore be exposed to XML External Entity (XXE) style attacks.

Affected versions: Spring Web Services 5.0.0 through 5.0.1; 4.1.0 through 4.1.3; 4.0.0 through 4.0.18; 3.1.0 through 3.1.8.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N
CVSS Score: 8.2

Attack Vector	Network	Scope	Unchanged
Attack Complexity	Low	Confidentiality Impact	High
Privileges Required	None	Integrity Impact	Low
User Interaction	None	Availability Impact	None

CVSS 3.1

Product Status

Vendor	Spring
Product	Spring Web Services
Versions	Default: unaffected affected from 5.0.0 to 5.0.2 (excl.) affected from 4.1.0 to 4.1.4 (excl.) affected from 4.0.0 to 4.0.19 (excl.) affected from 3.1.0 to 3.1.9 (excl.)

References

https://spring.io/security/cve-2026-40998

Problem Types

CWE-611: Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference CWE

Impacts

Applications that evaluate XPath against untrusted XML payloads via StreamSource or SAXSource can be exposed to XXE attacks, including confidential file disclosure or server-side request forgery.