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CVE-2026-90885

XXE in Apache Camel Saxon when body is already a Source

CVSS 3.1
7.5 high
EPSS
<1%p48
Published
·
Modified
Analyze CVE-2026-90885 with Vani AIImpact, affected versions, exploitation status, mitigations and detection

Apache Camel's Saxon XQueryBuilder evaluates XQuery with a default Saxon configuration that accepts DOCTYPE and resolves external entities. String, byte[], and InputStream bodies are protected by Camel converters; a body that is already a javax.xml.transform.Source (for example after convertBodyTo(Source.class)) is parsed unprotected. An unauthenticated remote sender whose XML reaches an XQuery expression or xquery endpoint in that form can read files the Camel process can read and make the process request hosts named in the document. Default configuration is enough; no extra option is required.

What to do: Upgrade to 4.23.0, or to 4.22.2 on 4.22.x and 4.18.5 on 4.18.x. EOL lines get no fix and must move to a supported release. Until then, do not run XQuery on an untrusted Source body, or set a Saxon Configuration that refuses DOCTYPE and disables external entities and external DTD loading.

ProductAffectedFixed in
Apache Camel (camel-saxon)4.0.0 before 4.18.5, and 4.19.0 before 4.22.24.18.5, 4.22.2, or 4.23.0
Estimated exposure
No basis for an estimate.

Order-of-magnitude estimate by the model from install counts, market share and public scan data it knows; verify before quoting.

Description · NVD

Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference vulnerability in Apache Camel Saxon component. This issue affects Apache Camel: from 4.0.0 before 4.18.5, from 4.19.0 before 4.22.2. XQueryBuilder in camel-saxon, which evaluates expressions for the xquery language and the xquery component, built its default Saxon Configuration with parse options that set only a whitespace stripping rule, leaving the XML parser at its defaults, under which a DOCTYPE declaration is accepted and external entities are resolved. A message body of type String or byte[], or any body read as an InputStream, is first turned into a javax.xml.transform.Source by Camel's own XML type converters, which configure the parser against external entities, so those bodies were not affected. A body that was already a Source, however, was handed to Saxon unchanged, and when that Source still had to be parsed, as a stream-based Source does, Saxon parsed it with that Configuration, bypassing the protection applied to the other body types. Such a body arises, for example, after a route converts the message with convertBodyTo(Source.class), or when a component or processor earlier in the route sets the body to a stream-based Source. A DOCTYPE with an external subset, or an external entity, declared in that body was therefore resolved and expanded into the document the expression was evaluated against. An external sender whose XML reaches an XQuery expression or an xquery endpoint in that form could read files readable by the Camel process and cause the process to issue requests to hosts the document names. No non-default option is required, since the default Configuration is used whenever the route does not supply one of its own. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.23.0, which fixes the issue. If users are on the 4.22.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.22.2. If users are on the 4.18.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.18.5. The 4.14.x releases stream and earlier, as well as the 4.15.x to 4.17.x and 4.19.x to 4.21.x release lines, reached end of life before this issue was resolved and will not receive a fix, so deployments on them must move to a supported release. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, do not evaluate XQuery over a message body that is already a javax.xml.transform.Source when that body carries XML from an untrusted sender, or set the configuration option of the xquery endpoint or language to a Saxon Configuration whose parse options refuse a DOCTYPE declaration and disable external entities and external DTD loading, which is what the fixed releases now apply by default.

Weakness
CWE-611
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

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