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GradleApplication

CVE-2023-42445

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-10-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.6.3 / 8.4.0 or later.
See remediation →
60/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. In some cases, when Gradle parses XML files, resolving XML external entities is not disabled. Combined with an Out Of Band XXE attack (OOB-XXE), just parsing XML can lead to exfiltration of local text files to a remote server. Gradle parses XML files for several purposes. Most of the time, Gradle parses XML files it generated or were already present locally. Only Ivy XML descriptors and Maven POM files can be fetched from remote repositories and parsed by Gradle. In Gradle 7.6.3 and 8.4, resolving XML external entities has been disabled for all use cases to protect against this vulnerability. Gradle will now refuse to parse XML files that have XML external entities.

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

Gradle had an XXE vulnerability where XML parsing did not disable external entity resolution, allowing malicious Ivy XML descriptors or Maven POM files fetched from remote repositories to potentially exfiltrate local text files via OOB-XXE attacks. Gradle 7.6.3 and later versions disable external entity resolution and refuse to parse XML files containing XXE.

MitigationUpgrade to Gradle 7.6.3, 8.4, or later which disables XML external entity resolution and refuses to parse XML files with entities.

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
GradleApplication
Affected:< 7.6.3>= 8.0.0, < 8.4.0

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

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

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. Determine installed Gradle version
    Run 'gradle --version' or check the gradle-wrapper.properties file in the gradle/wrapper/ directory for the distributionUrl property
    Affected if The version shown is less than 7.6.3, or is between 8.0.0 and 8.4.0 exclusive (for example 8.0.0, 8.1, 8.2, or 8.3)
  2. Identify remote repository usage
    Inspect build.gradle, build.gradle.kts, settings.gradle, or settings.gradle.kts for remote repository definitions such as maven { url }, mavenCentral(), or other remote repository URLs
    Affected if The project configures remote repositories (Maven or Ivy) from which dependencies are fetched
  3. Confirm XML dependency parsing
    Review the project's dependencies and build configuration to verify that Ivy XML descriptors or Maven POM files are fetched from remote repositories during build execution
    Affected if The build process fetches and parses XML-based dependency metadata (Ivy or Maven POMs) from remote repositories

You are affected if your installed Gradle version is less than 7.6.3 or falls between 8.0.0 and 8.4.0, AND your project fetches dependencies from remote repositories that could supply malicious Ivy or Maven XML files.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.6.3 / 8.4.0 or later
Fixed in 7.6.38.4.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Gradle 7.6.3, 8.4, or later which disables XML external entity resolution and refuses to parse XML files with entities.

Recommended fix High confidence

Gradle 7.6.3 (for 7.x users) or Gradle 8.4 (for 8.x users)

  1. 1. Check current Gradle version by running `gradle --version`
  2. 2. If using Gradle 7.x line: upgrade to version 7.6.3 or later
  3. 3. If using Gradle 8.x line: upgrade to version 8.4 or later
  4. 4. Update Gradle Wrapper properties file (gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties) to point to the new version
  5. 5. Run `gradle wrapper` to update wrapper scripts
  6. 6. Verify the upgrade completed successfully with `gradle --version`
Caveat Upgrading across major versions (e.g., 7.x to 8.x) may introduce breaking changes; review Gradle migration guides

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

Fix this in Gradle Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,780
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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-2023-42445 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data