EUVD-2026-21410
GHSA-3pxv-7cmr-fjr4
CVSS Vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/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
Lifecycle Timeline
4Description
Apache Log4j Core's XmlLayout https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/layouts.html#XmlLayout , in versions up to and including 2.25.3, fails to sanitize characters forbidden by the XML 1.0 specification https://www.w3.org/TR/xml/#charsets producing invalid XML output whenever a log message or MDC value contains such characters. The impact depends on the StAX implementation in use: * JRE built-in StAX: Forbidden characters are silently written to the output, producing malformed XML. Conforming parsers must reject such documents with a fatal error, which may cause downstream log-processing systems to drop the affected records. * Alternative StAX implementations (e.g., Woodstox https://github.com/FasterXML/woodstox , a transitive dependency of the Jackson XML Dataformat module): An exception is thrown during the logging call, and the log event is never delivered to its intended appender, only to Log4j's internal status logger. Users are advised to upgrade to Apache Log4j Core 2.25.4, which corrects this issue by sanitizing forbidden characters before XML output.
Analysis
Apache Log4j Core's XmlLayout in versions up to 2.25.3 fails to sanitize XML-forbidden characters, producing malformed XML output when log messages or MDC values contain such characters. The impact varies by StAX implementation: JRE's built-in StAX silently writes invalid XML that conforming parsers reject, potentially causing downstream log-processing systems to drop records; alternative StAX implementations like Woodstox throw exceptions during logging calls, preventing event delivery to the intended appender. …
Sign in for full analysis, threat intelligence, and remediation guidance.
Priority Score
Share
External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today