REXML DoS vulnerability

Impact

The REXML gem before 3.3.2 has some DoS vulnerabilities when it parses an XML that has many specific characters such as whitespace character, >] and ]>.

If you need to parse untrusted XMLs, you may be impacted to these vulnerabilities.

Patches

The REXML gem 3.3.3 or later include the patches to fix these vulnerabilities.

Workarounds

Don't parse untrusted XMLs.

References

• https://github.com/ruby/rexml/security/advisories/GHSA-vg3r-rm7w-2xgh : This is a similar vulnerability
• https://github.com/ruby/rexml/security/advisories/GHSA-4xqq-m2hx-25v8 : This is a similar vulnerability
• https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2024/08/01/dos-rexml-cve-2024-41123/: An announce on www.ruby-lang.org