VulnerabilityPublished 19 Feb 2026Updated 10 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-26278: NaturalIntelligence fast-xml-parser · XML Entity Expansion

Affects NaturalIntelligence fast-xml-parserSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 5.3.6 or 4.5.4 soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 60% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 5.3.6, 4.5.4

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 19 Feb 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade NaturalIntelligence fast-xml-parser to 5.3.6 or 4.5.4.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
NaturalIntelligencefast-xml-parser	Affected >=5.0.0 <5.3.6	Fixed in 5.3.6
NaturalIntelligencefast-xml-parser	Affected >=4.1.3 <4.5.4	Fixed in 4.5.4

AI-suggested

Upgrade fast-xml-parser to version 5.3.6 or later, which contains the official fix for this vulnerability. As a workaround, if upgrading is not immediately possible, disable DOCTYPE parsing by setting the processEntities option to false to prevent entity expansion. Note that Red Hat advisories indicate that some mitigations may not meet their criteria for ease of use or stability, so upgrading is the recommended approach.

Description

fast-xml-parser allows users to validate XML, parse XML to JS object, or build XML from JS object without C/C++ based libraries and no callback. In versions 4.1.3 through 5.3.5, the XML parser can be forced to do an unlimited amount of entity expansion. With a very small XML input, it’s possible to make the parser spend seconds or even minutes processing a single request, effectively freezing the application. Version 5.3.6 fixes the issue. As a workaround, avoid using DOCTYPE parsing by `processEntities: false` option.

Impact

An attacker can cause a denial of service by sending a small, specially crafted XML input that triggers unlimited entity expansion in the vulnerable versions of fast-xml-parser. This leads to excessive CPU and memory consumption, freezing the application and making it unavailable for legitimate users. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely without authentication or user interaction.

Summary

The fast-xml-parser library versions 4.1.3 through 5.3.5 are vulnerable to CWE-776, improper restriction of recursive entity references in DTDs, also known as XML Entity Expansion. This flaw allows an attacker to provide a specially crafted XML input that forces the parser to perform unlimited entity expansion, leading to excessive resource consumption and denial of service by freezing the application. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5, indicating high severity with network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges or user interaction required, and high impact on availability. The issue is resolved in version 5.3.6. The vendor advisory and Red Hat advisory confirm the denial of service impact and recommend upgrading to the fixed version. A temporary mitigation is to disable entity processing by setting processEntities to false, avoiding DOCTYPE parsing.

CWE-776Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumOWASP Top 10 A02:2025: Security Misconfiguration (opens in a new tab)
The product uses XML documents and allows their structure to be defined with a Document Type Definition (DTD), but it does not properly control the number of recursive definitions of entities.
Operation
If possible, prohibit the use of DTDs or use an XML parser that limits the expansion of recursive DTD entities.
Implementation
Before parsing XML files with associated DTDs, scan for recursive entity declarations and do not continue parsing potentially explosive content.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Exponential Data Expansion (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 14 Aug 2026, 14:40 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-776

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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