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# Tainted saxparser xxe servlet

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="tainted-saxparser-xxe-servlet">
    The application is using an XML parser that has not been safely configured. This might lead to XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerabilities when parsing user-controlled input. An attacker can include document type definitions (DTDs) which can interact with internal or external hosts. XXE can lead to other vulnerabilities, such as Local File Inclusion (LFI), Remote Code Execution (RCE), and Server-side request forgery (SSRF), depending on the application configuration. An attacker can also use DTDs to expand recursively, leading to a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack, also known as a Billion Laughs Attack. It is our recommendation to secure this parser against XXE attacks by configuring the SAXParserFactory with `factory.setFeature(http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl, true)`. Alternatively, the following configurations for the SAXParserFactory also provide protection against XXE attacks. `factory.setFeature(XMLConstants.FEATURE_SECURE_PROCESSING, true)`, enabling both of `factory.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-general-entities", and `factory.setFeature("[http://xml.org/sax/features/external-parameter-entities](http://xml.org/sax/features/external-parameter-entities)", false)`. Furthermore, you can configure the SAXParser itself with `parser.setProperty(XMLConstants.ACCESS\_EXTERNAL\_DTD, "")\` to provide protection against XXE attacks. For more information, see: [Java XXE prevention](https://semgrep.dev/docs/cheat-sheets/java-xxe/)<br />**Likelihood**: MEDIUM<br />**Confidence**: HIGH<br />**CWE**: <br />- CWE-611: Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference
    <br />- CWE-776: Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion')
    <br />**OWASP**: <br />- A04:2017 - XML External Entities (XXE)
    <br />- A05:2021 - Security Misconfiguration
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>