CVE-2021-20453

Severity: high (CVSS 8.2 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 2.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2021-04-20 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-611

Description

IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.0, 8.5, and 9.0 is vulnerable to a XML External Entity Injection (XXE) attack when processing XML data. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to expose sensitive information or consume memory resources. IBM X-Force ID: 196648.

Affected products

IBM WebSphere Application Server: from 8.0.0.0 before 8.0.0.15; from 8.5.0.0 before 8.5.5.20; from 9.0.0.0 before 9.0.5.8 — fixed in 8.0.0.15, 8.5.5.20, 9.0.5.8

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.0.0.15, 8.5.5.20, 9.0.5.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/196648
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6445171
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/196648
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6445171

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