Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-27136

XXE

Published
10 March 2025
Modified
15 April 2026
CVSS Score v4 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0051 42th percentile
Risk Priority 39 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2025-27136 is a medium-severity Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (CWE-611) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 42th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to CM-6 (Configuration Settings) and SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

LocalS3 is an Amazon S3 mock service for testing and local development. Prior to version 1.21, the LocalS3 service's bucket creation endpoint is vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) injection. When processing the CreateBucketConfiguration XML document during bucket creation, the…

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service's XML parser is configured to resolve external entities. This allows an attacker to declare an external entity that references an internal URL, which the server will then attempt to fetch when parsing the XML. The vulnerability specifically occurs in the location constraint processing, where the XML parser resolves external entities without proper validation or restrictions. When the external entity is resolved, the server makes an HTTP request to the specified URL and includes the response content in the parsed XML document. This vulnerability can be exploited to perform server-side request forgery (SSRF) attacks, allowing an attacker to make requests to internal services or resources that should not be accessible from external networks. The server will include the responses from these internal requests in the resulting bucket configuration, effectively leaking sensitive information. The attacker only needs to be able to send HTTP requests to the LocalS3 service to exploit this vulnerability.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
T1213 Data from Information Repositories Collection
Adversaries may leverage information repositories to mine valuable information.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-20173Shared CWE-611
CVE-2025-34142Shared CWE-611
CVE-2023-37200Shared CWE-611
CVE-2025-4639Shared CWE-611
CVE-2024-51132Shared CWE-611
CVE-2024-49535Shared CWE-611
CVE-2026-1227Shared CWE-611
CVE-2023-24187Shared CWE-611
CVE-2024-45072Shared CWE-611
CVE-2024-2374Shared CWE-611

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.5.1
  • V15.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Secure configuration settings can disable external entity processing in XML parsers.

Developer testing can discover XXE flaws through targeted XML parsing tests.

Input validation can reject or sanitize XML containing external entity references.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-01 mostly match
prevents

Hardened XML parser configurations directly disable external entity resolution.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices include input validation and safe XML parser configuration that prevent XXE.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning can discover XXE flaws but does not prevent their introduction in code.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching eliminates XXE-vulnerable parser versions but is only one aspect of software maintenance.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development catches XXE via static analysis and dynamic XML fuzzing.

finds

Vulnerability management identifies and patches XML libraries with unsafe default entity settings.

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and entity handling that directly prevents XXE.

prevents

Application security requirements explicitly call for disabling external entity processing in XML parsers.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include safe parser configuration that mitigates external entity risks.

prevents

Secure coding standards require disabling DTDs and external entities in XML processing.

References