# CVE-2014-8090: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service via CPU and memory exhaustion using crafted XML with nested entity references in the Ruby REXML parser.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 21 Nov 2014
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2x97-vvh4-m4q4, UBUNTU-CVE-2014-8090, USN-2412-1

## What is CVE-2014-8090?

CVE-2014-8090 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Ruby-Lang Ruby, published on 21 Nov 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The REXML parser in Ruby 1.9.x before 1.9.3 patchlevel 551, 2.0.x before 2.0.0 patchlevel 598, and 2.1.x before 2.1.5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU and memory consumption) a crafted XML document containing an empty string in an entity that is used in a large number of nested entity references, aka an XML Entity Expansion (XEE) attack.  NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2013-1821 and CVE-2014-8080.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-8090?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ruby-Lang Ruby.

## How do I fix CVE-2014-8090?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2014-8090 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-8090 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Ruby-Lang Ruby

- [CVE-2009-4124](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-4124/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2022-28738](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-28738/): Use after free in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2011-4121](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-4121/): Weak cryptography in OpenSSL extension of Ruby (Git trunk) (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-17790](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-17790/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-11465](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-11465/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2014-8090 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2014-8090 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Ruby-Lang Ruby, published on 21 Nov 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-8090 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Ruby-Lang Ruby. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-8090/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-8090/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-8090
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-8090
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2014-8090

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-8090/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.