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Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical

CVE-2020-10683

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-05-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.0.3 / 2.1.3 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
dom4j before 2.0.3 and 2.1.x before 2.1.3 allows external DTDs and External Entities by default, which might enable XXE attacks. However, there is popular external documentation from OWASP showing how to enable the safe, non-default behavior in any application that uses dom4j.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-611

An XML parser processes external entity references inside untrusted documents, letting an attacker read local files, reach internal systems, or exhaust resources. It's a common trap in anything that accepts XML. The fix is to disable external entities and DTD processing in the parser.

General guidance for the xml external entity (xxe) class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 16.04
Dom4jApplication
Affected:< 2.0.3>= 2.1.0, < 2.1.3
Agile PlmApplication
Affected:= 9.3.3= 9.3.5
Application Testing SuiteApplication
Affected:= 13.3.0.1
Banking PlatformApplication
Affected:>= 2.4.0, <= 2.10.0
Business Process Management SuiteApplication
Affected:= 12.2.1.3.0= 12.2.1.4.0
Communications Application Session ControllerApplication
Affected:= 3.9m0p1
Communications Diameter Signaling RouterApplication
Affected:>= 8.0.0, <= 8.2.2

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.0.3 / 2.1.3 or later
Fixed in 2.0.32.1.3
Vendor patch bugzilla.redhat.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

dom4j 2.1.3 (or later 2.1.x release)

  1. Identify the dom4j dependency version in your project (check pom.xml, build.gradle, or JAR manifest)
  2. Upgrade dom4j to version 2.1.3 or later (preferred) or 2.0.3 if staying on the 2.0.x branch
  3. Run mvn clean install or gradle build to pull the updated dependency
  4. Rebuild and redeploy the application
  5. Verify the upgrade by checking that the new dom4j version is loaded at runtime
  6. Test the application to ensure XML parsing functionality still works correctly after the upgrade
Caveat Minimal - this is a security hardening fix; ensure XML parsing features still function as expected after upgrade

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $3,550. Get the upgrade done

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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-2020-10683 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
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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