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Network SatelliteApplication · Redhat

CVE-2014-8162

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-05-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.7 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
XML external entity (XXE) in the RPC interface in Spacewalk and Red Hat Network (RHN) Satellite 5.7 and earlier allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files and possibly have other unspecified impact via unknown vectors.

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 confidence

This is an XML External Entity (XXE) injection vulnerability in the RPC interface of Spacewalk and Red Hat Network (RHN) Satellite server versions 5.7 and earlier. The vulnerability stems from the XML parser not properly disabling external entity processing, allowing remote attackers to exploit the XXE flaw to read arbitrary files from the server's filesystem and potentially execute other unspecified attacks.

MitigationUpdate to Spacewalk or RHN Satellite version 5.8 or later which contains the patched XML parser. If updates are unavailable, configure the XML parser to disable external entity and DTD processing, or implement input validation to reject malicious XML payloads.

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
Network SatelliteApplication
Affected:<= 5.7
ManagerApplication
Affected:= 1.7

CVSS 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
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify RHN Satellite or Spacewalk version
    Run 'rpm -q spacewalk-schema' or check the version through the web UI under Admin > Organizations, or check /usr/share/spacewalk/sql/ for version files. For RHN Satellite, check /etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhn.conf for version metadata.
    Affected if The installed version is 5.7 or earlier (for RHN Satellite) or any version of Spacewalk that maps to the vulnerable code base prior to the 5.8 patch.
  2. Identify SUSE Manager version
    Run 'rpm -q susemanager' or 'rug list | grep susemanager' to query installed packages. Alternatively, check /etc/susemanager/version if it exists.
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 1.7.
  3. Determine if the RPC interface is network-accessible
    Check network listeners with 'netstat -tlnp | grep 80' or 'ss -tlnp' and verify if the XML-RPC API port (typically 80/443 or 5222 for satellite) is exposed to untrusted networks. Review firewall rules and reverse proxy configurations.
    Affected if The RPC interface is reachable from untrusted network segments or the internet.
  4. Inspect XML parser configuration files
    Examine the XML parser configuration in the application server (typically Tomcat or Apache) for external entity handling. Look for custom XML factories or parser configurations in /etc/tomcat*/ or the Spacewalk/Jetty configuration directories.
    Affected if The XML parser has not explicitly disabled external entity (FEATURE_SECURE_PROCESSING) and DTD processing, or no XXE protection is configured.

You are affected if you run RHN Satellite version 5.7 or earlier, SUSE Manager version 1.7, or an unpatched Spacewalk version corresponding to pre-5.8 code, and the RPC interface is network-accessible with the default vulnerable XML parser configuration.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.7
Interim mitigation

Update to Spacewalk or RHN Satellite version 5.8 or later which contains the patched XML parser. If updates are unavailable, configure the XML parser to disable external entity and DTD processing, or implement input validation to reject malicious XML payloads.

Fix this in Network Satellite Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,408.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-8162 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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