CWE-91: XML Injection (aka Blind XPath Injection)
Official CWE-91 CWE context with Glexia analysis, remediation guidance, related CVEs, and ATT&CK context.
Glexia's Take
CWE-91: XML Injection (aka Blind XPath Injection)
XML Injection (aka Blind XPath Injection) represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
Executive Impact
- Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands,Read Application Data,Modify Application Data
Developer Pattern
CWE-91 is the kind of defect developers can usually prevent with explicit validation, safer framework defaults, and tests that exercise hostile input or unsafe state transitions.
Confidence
high confidence from CWE-91, 4.20.
Official CWE Definition
CWE-91: XML Injection (aka Blind XPath Injection)
The product does not properly neutralize special elements that are used in XML, allowing attackers to modify the syntax, content, or commands of the XML before it is processed by an end system.
Within XML, special elements could include reserved words or characters such as "<", ">", """, and "&", which could then be used to add new data or modify XML syntax.
Developer And Remediation Guidance
How teams prevent and detect this weakness
Causes
- Missing validation
- Unsafe defaults
- Insufficient authorization or memory-safety invariant
Remediation
- Implementation: [object Object]
Detection
- Automated Static Analysis: Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)
Mappings
Related CVEs, CWEs, and ATT&CK context
Related CWEs
- CWE-643: Improper Neutralization of Data within XPath Expressions ('XPath Injection')
- CWE-652: Improper Neutralization of Data within XQuery Expressions ('XQuery Injection')
- CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection')
- CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection')
ATT&CK Relevance
ATT&CK relevance is shown only when reviewed or responsibly inferred.