Apache POI in versions prior to release 3.15 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a specially crafted OOXML file, aka an XML Entity Expansion (XEE) attack.
Weakness
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.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poi | Apache | * | 3.14 (including) |
| Libapache-poi-java | Ubuntu | artful | * |
| Libapache-poi-java | Ubuntu | esm-apps/xenial | * |
| Libapache-poi-java | Ubuntu | precise | * |
| Libapache-poi-java | Ubuntu | trusty | * |
| Libapache-poi-java | Ubuntu | upstream | * |
| Libapache-poi-java | Ubuntu | xenial | * |
| Libapache-poi-java | Ubuntu | yakkety | * |
| Libapache-poi-java | Ubuntu | zesty | * |
Potential Mitigations
Related Attack Patterns
References
- http://poi.apache.org/#20+March+2017+-+CVE-2017-5644+-+Possible+DOS+%28Denial+of+Service%29+in+Apache+POI+versions+prior+to+3.15
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96983
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2020.html
- http://poi.apache.org/#20+March+2017+-+CVE-2017-5644+-+Possible+DOS+%28Denial+of+Service%29+in+Apache+POI+versions+prior+to+3.15
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96983
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2020.html