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CVE-2026-108039

Apache CXF: Prevent unbounded XML document size in StaxUtils by adding default element and character limits

Apache Software Foundation Apache CXF
CVSS
7.5High
ExploitationNo known exploitationNot in CISA KEV, which does not prove it is unexploitedCISA KEV
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.46%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 38% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in4.2.4Also 4.1.9, 3.6.13CVE List
Published9 Oct 2026Updated 15 Oct 2026CVE List

What fixes it

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

By default, StaxUtils placed no limit on the total number of elements or the total number of characters in an XML document. A very large request could therefore use a lot of memory and CPU during parsing, especially where CXF builds a DOM from the input (for example SAAJ or WS-Security), and could cause a denial of service when no request size limit was configured. Both limits now have defaults: the maximum element count is 100 × maxChildElements (5,000,000 by default), and the maximum document size is 256M characters. Applications that process larger documents can raise the limits with the org.apache.cxf.stax.maxElementCount and org.apache.cxf.stax.maxXMLCharacters properties. Users are recommended to upgrade to versions 4.2.4 or 4.1.9 or 3.6.13, which fix this issue.

Text from CVE List

Affected versions 3

  • Apache CXFaffected: 4.2.0 before 4.2.4CVE List
  • Apache CXFaffected: 4.0.0 before 4.1.9CVE List
  • Apache CXFaffected: all versions before 3.6.13CVE List

References 1