Recently, we had a security audit on our code, and one of the problem is that our application is subject to the Xml eXternal Entity (XXE) attack.
Basically, the application is a calculator that receives inputs as XML, through a Web-Service.
Here is an example of such an XXE attack on our application:
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<soapenv:Header/>
<soapenv:Body>
<foo:calculateStuff>
<!--Optional:-->
<xmlInput><![CDATA[<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!DOCTYPE currency [
<!ENTITY include SYSTEM "file:///d:/" >]>
<calcinput>...</calcinput>
]]></xmlInput>
</foo:calculateStuff>
</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>
As you can see, we can refer to an entity that points to an external file ("file:///d:/"
).
Regarding the XML input itself (the <calcinput>...</calcinput>
part) is unmarshalled with JAXB (v2.1). The web-service part is based on jaxws-rt (2.1).
What do I need to do to secure my web-service?
JAXB
You can prevent the Xml eXternal Entity (XXE) attack by unmarshalling from an XMLStreamReader
that has the IS_SUPPORTING_EXTERNAL_ENTITIES
and/or XMLInputFactory.SUPPORT_DTD
properties set to false
.
JAX-WS
A JAX-WS implementation should take care of this for you. If it doesn't I would recommend opening a bug against the specific implmententation.
EXAMPLE
Demo
package xxe;
import javax.xml.bind.*;
import javax.xml.stream.*;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;
public class Demo {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance(Customer.class);
XMLInputFactory xif = XMLInputFactory.newFactory();
xif.setProperty(XMLInputFactory.IS_SUPPORTING_EXTERNAL_ENTITIES, false);
xif.setProperty(XMLInputFactory.SUPPORT_DTD, false);
XMLStreamReader xsr = xif.createXMLStreamReader(new StreamSource("src/xxe/input.xml"));
Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jc.createUnmarshaller();
Customer customer = (Customer) unmarshaller.unmarshal(xsr);
Marshaller marshaller = jc.createMarshaller();
marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
marshaller.marshal(customer, System.out);
}
}
input.xml
This XML document contains an entity that has been setup to get the listing of files I used to create this example.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE customer
[
<!ENTITY name SYSTEM "/Users/bdoughan/Examples/src/xxe/">
]
>
<customer>
<name>&name;</name>
</customer>
Customer
package xxe;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
@XmlRootElement
public class Customer {
private String name;
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
}
Output - Default Configuration
By default the entity will be resolved.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<customer>
<name>Customer.java
Demo.java
input.xml
</name>
</customer>
Output when XMLInputFactory.IS_SUPPORTING_EXTERNAL_ENTITIES
property is set to false
When this property is set the entity is not resolved.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<customer>
<name></name>
</customer>
Output when XMLInputFactory.SUPPORT_DTD
property is set to false
When this property is set an exception is thrown trying to resolve the entity.
Exception in thread "main" javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException
- with linked exception:
[javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException: ParseError at [row,col]:[8,15]
Message: The entity "name" was referenced, but not declared.]
at com.sun.xml.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.handleStreamException(UnmarshallerImpl.java:436)
at com.sun.xml.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal0(UnmarshallerImpl.java:372)
at com.sun.xml.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(UnmarshallerImpl.java:342)
at xxe.Demo.main(Demo.java:18)
Caused by: javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException: ParseError at [row,col]:[8,15]
Message: The entity "name" was referenced, but not declared.
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLStreamReaderImpl.next(XMLStreamReaderImpl.java:598)
at com.sun.xml.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.StAXStreamConnector.bridge(StAXStreamConnector.java:196)
at com.sun.xml.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal0(UnmarshallerImpl.java:370)
... 2 more