CVE-2024-35176: REXML contains a denial of service vulnerability

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.3 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 2.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-05-16 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-400

Description

REXML is an XML toolkit for Ruby. The REXML gem before 3.2.6 has a denial of service vulnerability when it parses an XML that has many `<`s in an attribute value. Those who need to parse untrusted XMLs may be impacted to this vulnerability. The REXML gem 3.2.7 or later include the patch to fix this vulnerability. As a workaround, don't parse untrusted XMLs.

Affected products

ruby rexml: before 3.2.7 — fixed in 3.2.7

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: ruby rexml 3.2.7. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://github.com/ruby/rexml/commit/4325835f92f3f142ebd91a3fdba4e1f1ab7f1cfb
https://github.com/ruby/rexml/security/advisories/GHSA-vg3r-rm7w-2xgh
https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2024/05/16/dos-rexml-cve-2024-35176
https://github.com/ruby/rexml/commit/4325835f92f3f142ebd91a3fdba4e1f1ab7f1cfb
https://github.com/ruby/rexml/security/advisories/GHSA-vg3r-rm7w-2xgh
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/01/msg00011.html
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20250306-0001/
https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2024/05/16/dos-rexml-cve-2024-35176

Get alerted when CVE-2024-35176 or the next vulnerability affects your stack