dbcve.org
Reference ValidatorApplication · Gematik

CVE-2024-46984

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-09-19
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.5.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
The reference validator is a tool to perform advanced validation of FHIR resources for TI applications and interoperability standards. The profile location routine in the referencevalidator commons package is vulnerable to `XML External Entities` attack due to insecure defaults of the used Woodstox WstxInputFactory. A malicious XML resource can lead to network requests issued by referencevalidator and thus to a `Server Side Request Forgery` attack. The vulnerability impacts applications which use referencevalidator to process XML resources from untrusted sources. The problem has been patched with the 2.5.1 version of the referencevalidator. Users are strongly recommended to update to this version or a more recent one. A pre-processing or manual analysis of input XML resources on existence of DTD definitions or external entities can mitigate the problem.

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

The referencevalidator commons package has an XXE vulnerability due to insecure default settings in the Woodstox WstxInputFactory XML parser. When processing untrusted XML resources, the parser allows external entity expansion, enabling attackers to craft malicious XML that triggers SSRF by making arbitrary network requests from the vulnerable server.

MitigationUpdate referencevalidator to version 2.5.1 or later to patch the insecure Woodstox defaults. Alternatively, implement XML pre-processing to strip DTD definitions and external entity declarations before validation.

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
Reference ValidatorApplication
Affected:< 2.5.1

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

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 the installed Reference Validator version
    Run the version command for your referencevalidator installation (e.g., referencevalidator --version, or check the JAR/Maven artifact version)
    Affected if The version is below 2.5.1
  2. Confirm the Woodstox XML parser is in use
    Inspect the application dependencies or classpath for the woodstox-core library (com.ctc.wstx:wstx-core)
    Affected if Woodstox is present and used for XML parsing
  3. Verify XML parsing configuration allows external entities
    Examine the XML parser initialization code or configuration for WstxInputFactory settings - look for whether features like XMLConstants.ACCESS_EXTERNAL_DTD or XMLConstants.ACCESS_EXTERNAL_SCHEMA are restricted
    Affected if External entity expansion is not explicitly disabled in the parser configuration
  4. Determine if untrusted XML is processed
    Review application logs, code, or network traffic to identify if external/untrusted XML files are submitted for validation
    Affected if The validator processes XML from untrusted or external sources

You are affected if the installed referencevalidator version is below 2.5.1 and the application processes untrusted XML through the Woodstox parser with default settings that permit external entity expansion.

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 2.5.1 or later
Fixed in 2.5.1
Interim mitigation

Update referencevalidator to version 2.5.1 or later to patch the insecure Woodstox defaults. Alternatively, implement XML pre-processing to strip DTD definitions and external entity declarations before validation.

Recommended fix High confidence

Reference Validator 2.5.1 or later

  1. Identify all dependencies on the referencevalidator commons package in your project
  2. Locate the dependency management configuration (e.g., pom.xml for Maven, build.gradle for Gradle)
  3. Update the referencevalidator dependency version to 2.5.1 or later
  4. Rebuild and redeploy the application
  5. Verify the upgrade by testing XML processing functionality that uses referencevalidator

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

Fix this in Reference Validator Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,540
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,464.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-46984 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2024-46984 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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