CVE-2011-1754
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedjabberd14 1.6.1.1 and earlier does not properly detect recursion during entity expansion, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory and CPU consumption) via a crafted XML document containing a large number of nested entity references, a similar issue to CVE-2003-1564.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidencejabberd14 1.6.1.1 and earlier contains a vulnerability in its XML parser where recursive entity expansion is not properly detected or limited. Attackers can send crafted XML documents with deeply nested entity references, causing exponential memory allocation and CPU consumption—a classic 'billion laughs' style DoS attack.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 1.6.1.1= 1.4.1= 1.4.2= 1.4.3= 1.4.3.1= 1.4.4= 1.6.0= 1.6.1CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify jabberd14 is installedCheck for jabberd14 processes running or look for installation directories: run 'ps aux | grep jabberd' or check common paths like /usr/bin/jabberd, /usr/local/bin/jabberd, or /opt/jabberd/Affected if jabberd14 process is running or binaries exist on the system
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Identify jabberd14 versionRun 'jabberd --version' or check the version string in the binary, or look in installation files such as configure.in, VERSION file, or release notesAffected if version is 1.6.1.1 or earlier, or matches any of: 1.4.1, 1.4.2, 1.4.3, 1.4.3.1, 1.4.4, 1.6.0, 1.6.1
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Locate jabberd configuration filesFind jabberd.xml, jabberd.cfg, or c2s.xml in /etc/jabberd/, /etc/, or the installation conf/ directoryAffected if configuration files exist and XML parser settings can be inspected
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Check XML parser entity configurationInspect the XML parser configuration section in jabberd.xml or c2s.xml for settings related to entity expansion, external entities, or parser limits. Look for options like 'xml:parse', 'entity', or similar XML processing directivesAffected if XML parser allows unlimited entity expansion or external entity processing without resource limits configured
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Verify if jabberd accepts XML stanzas from networkCheck c2s.xml or the connection listener configuration for port 5222 (c2s) or 5269 (s2s) to confirm the server accepts XML streams from clients or remote serversAffected if jabberd accepts incoming XML streams from clients or remote servers without XML parser resource restrictions
The system is affected if jabberd14 version 1.6.1.1 or earlier is running and the XML parser is configured to allow entity expansion without limits on incoming network connections.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to a patched version of jabberd14. If upgrade is not immediately possible, implement XML parser resource limits, disable external entity processing, and add input validation to reject documents with excessive entity nesting.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-1754 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2011-1754 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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