Docling's METS GBS backend is vulnerable to XML Entity Expansion (XXE) attacks thru…
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- No fix listed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.
Summary
Docling's METS GBS backend is vulnerable to XML Entity Expansion (XXE) attacks thru 2.61.0. The backend extracts and validates XML files from .tar.gz archives using etree.fromstring() without disabling entity resolution. An attacker can craft a malicious XML file with nested entity definitions (XML Bomb) and package it into a .tar.gz archive. When processed by Docling, the exponential expansion of entities during XML parsing leads to excessive resource consumption, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition on the system running the Docling parser.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | all versions | — | No fix listed | CNA |
| — | docling (PyPI) | up to 2.61.0 | — | No fix listed | GHSA-9f4q-q82q-4359 |
- — Vendor— Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
- docling (PyPI) Vendor— Affected up to 2.61.0 Fixed in — No fix listed GHSA-9f4q-q82q-4359
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-31248
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-9f4q-q82q-4359
References
Sources
- CVE-2026-31248 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-31248 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-9f4q-q82q-4359 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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