CVE-2023-42445 Possible local file exfiltration by XML External entity injection
Attackers can exfiltrate local files via XML External Entity injection when Gradle parses remote XML descriptors.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-42445?
CVE-2023-42445 is a medium-severity vulnerability in gradle, published on 6 Oct 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. In some cases, when Gradle parses XML files, resolving XML external entities is not disabled. Combined with an Out Of Band XXE attack (OOB-XXE), just parsing XML can lead to exfiltration of local text files to a remote server. Gradle parses XML files for several purposes. Most of the time, Gradle parses XML files it generated or were already present locally. Only Ivy XML descriptors and Maven POM files can be fetched from remote repositories and parsed by Gradle. In Gradle 7.6.3 and 8.4, resolving XML external entities has been disabled for all use cases to protect against this vulnerability. Gradle will now refuse to parse XML files that have XML external entities.
Weakness: CWE-611
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-42445?
1 open source package ship an affected version, including gradle. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
gradle Bitnami | All versions | 7.6.3, 8.4.0 |
Products include Gradle Gradle.
How do I fix CVE-2023-42445?
Upgrade gradle to a fixed version for your release line: 7.6.3 or 8.4.0.
Is CVE-2023-42445 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-42445 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in gradle
- CVE-2019-15052 Information disclosure in n/a
- CVE-2016-6199 Deserialization in n/a
- CVE-2021-29428 Local privilege escalation through system temporary directory
- CVE-2026-22816 Gradle fails to disable repositories which can expose builds to malicious artifacts
- CVE-2026-22865 Gradle's failure to disable repositories failing to answer can expose builds to malicious artifacts
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-42445, BIT-gradle-2023-42445, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-42445, GHSA-mrff-q8qj-xvg8, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-42445.