CVE-2026-85250: XXE (CVSS 7.5)

Description

Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference vulnerability in Apache Camel XPath component. This issue affects Apache Camel: from 4.0.0 before 4.18.5, from 4.19.0 before 4.22.1. With documentType set to InputSource, XPathBuilder handed the payload straight to javax.xml.xpath, which builds a DocumentBuilder of its own using the JDK defaults. The hardening applied to Camel's default document type was therefore bypassed: a DOCTYPE declaration that is refused on the default type was accepted here, and the external entity it declared was resolved and expanded into the evaluated document. An external sender whose XML reaches such an expression could read files readable by the Camel process and cause the process to issue requests to hosts it names. The two document types disagreeing on parser configuration is what made this reachable, since a deployment choosing InputSource for streaming reasons had no indication it was also choosing a weaker parser. Upgrade to Apache Camel 4.23.0, which fixes the issue. Users on the 4.18.x LTS releases stream should upgrade to 4.18.5. Users on the 4.22.x LTS releases stream should upgrade to 4.22.1. The InputSource document type now goes through the same hardened parser as the default type, so a DOCTYPE is refused. Note that it also shares that type's documented escape hatch: the same DocumentBuilderFactory system properties that relax the default type relax this one, so a deployment that has set them remains unprotected by design. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, do not use documentType=InputSource on expressions evaluated over untrusted XML; the default document type already refuses a DOCTYPE.

Is your site exposed to CVE-2026-85250?

Run a free security scan — no signup, results in seconds.

CVSS v3.1 Score

7.5

HIGH

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

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0070

Probability of exploitation

0.54%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-611 CWE-611

References

Other References

https://camel.apache.org/security/CVE-2026-85250.html https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/25683 https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/25940 https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/25942 https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CAMEL-24475

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-85250? +

Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference vulnerability in Apache Camel XPath component. This issue affects Apache Camel: from 4.0.0 before 4.18.5, from 4.19.0 before 4.22.1. With documentType set to InputSource, XPathBuilder handed the payload straight to javax.xml.xpath, which builds a DocumentBuilder of its own using the JDK defaults. The hardening applied to Camel's default document type was therefore bypassed: a DOCTYPE declaration that is refused on the default type was accepted here, and the external entity it declared was resolved and expanded into the evaluated document. An external sender whose XML reaches such an expression could read files readable by the Camel process and cause the process to issue requests to hosts it names. The two document types disagreeing on parser configuration is what made this reachable, since a deployment choosing InputSource for streaming reasons had no indication it was also choosing a weaker parser. Upgrade to Apache Camel 4.23.0, which fixes the issue. Users on the 4.18.x LTS releases stream should upgrade to 4.18.5. Users on the 4.22.x LTS releases stream should upgrade to 4.22.1. The InputSource document type now goes through the same hardened parser as the default type, so a DOCTYPE is refused. Note that it also shares that type's documented escape hatch: the same DocumentBuilderFactory system properties that relax the default type relax this one, so a deployment that has set them remains unprotected by design. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, do not use documentType=InputSource on expressions evaluated over untrusted XML; the default document type already refuses a DOCTYPE. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2026-85250? +

CVE-2026-85250 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching. The EPSS score is 0.0070, placing it in the 1th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-85250? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

Related Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-27136

LocalS3 is an Amazon S3 mock service for testing and local development. Prior to version 1.21, the LocalS3 service's bucket …

CVE-2025-47778

Sulu is an open-source PHP content management system based on the Symfony framework. Starting in versions 2.5.21, 2.6.5, and 3.0.0-alpha1, …

CVE-2025-4639

CWE-611 Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference in the getDocumentBuilder() method of WebDav servlet in Peergos. This issue affects …

CVE-2025-4641

Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference vulnerability in bonigarcia webdrivermanager WebDriverManager on Windows, MacOS, Linux (XML parsing components modules) …

CVE-2025-48882

PHPOffice Math is a library that provides a set of classes to manipulate different formula file formats. Prior to version …

CVE-2025-47293

PowSyBl (Power System Blocks) is a framework to build power system oriented software. Prior to version 6.7.2, in certain places, …