Inline DTD allows XML bomb attack

published 2019-08-19 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-qpmc-wprv-x746 , EUVD-2022-1819

cvss: 7.5; version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 1.7%; EPSS 1.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 76%
public exploits: 0; none known

The SweetXml (aka sweet_xml) package through 0.6.6 for Erlang and Elixir allows attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption) via an XML entity expansion attack with an inline DTD.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1

hex sweet_xml 0.7.0

Exploit prediction

1.67% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 76% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

github.com https://github.com/kbrw/sweet_xml/issues/71 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.0	7.5	CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD	2.0	5.0	AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
GitHub	3.0	7.5	CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
hex	sweet_xml	<0.7.0	0.7.0

Classification

Weakness

CWE-776 Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs
CWE-611 Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference

References

github.com /kbrw/sweet_xml/issues/71
web, exploit, third-party-advisory
hex.pm /packages/sweet_xml
web, third-party-advisory
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2019-15160
advisory
github.com /kbrw/sweet_xml
package

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary