dom4j before 2.0.3 and 2.1.x before 2.1.3 allows external DTDs and External Entities by default, which might enable XXE attacks. However, there is popular external documentation from OWASP showing how to enable the safe, non-default behavior in any application that uses dom4j.
CVE-2020-10683
This critical-severity CVE scores 9.8 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 7.0%, top 8% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 9.8
- EG Score
- 9.8(medium)
- EPSS
- 93.7%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
May 1, 2020
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
Advisory Details (9)
Auto-updated Jun 13, 2026version-2.1.3
Patch available: dom4j/dom4j version-2.1.3
https://github.com/dom4j/dom4j/releases/tag/version-2.1.3SAXReader uses system XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader() or SAXParserFactory.newInstance().newSAXParser() which has unsecure defaults · Issue #87 · dom4j/dom4j · GitHub
https://github.com/dom4j/dom4j/issues/87commit a8228522a99a (dom4j/dom4j)
Patch available: dom4j/dom4j version-2.0.3 (contains commit a8228522a99a)
https://github.com/dom4j/dom4j/commit/a8228522a99a02146106672a34c104adbda5c658XML External Entity Prevention - OWASP Cheat Sheet Series
https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/XML_External_Entity_Prevention_Cheat_Sheet.html1694235 – (CVE-2020-10683) CVE-2020-10683 dom4j: XML External Entity vulnerability in default SAX parser
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1694235Vendor Advisories for CVE-2020-10683(7)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- RHSA-2020:5568Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Fuse 7.8.0 release and security update
- RHSA-2020:3585Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: EAP Continuous Delivery Technical Preview Release 20 security update
- RHSA-2020:3501Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.4.2 security update
- RHSA-2020:3463Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3.2 security update
- RHSA-2020:3462Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3.2 security update
- RHSA-2020:3461Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3.2 security update
- RHSA-2020:3464Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3.2 security update
Patch Availability(8)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | libdom4j-java-doc (1.6.1+dfsg.3-2ubuntu1.1) @ xenial | 2026-05-27 | ubuntu |
| redhat | dom4j | 2020-12-16 | redhat |
| redhat | eap7-wildfly-transaction-client-0:1.1.11-1.Final_redhat_00001.1.el8eap | 2020-09-07 | redhat |
| redhat | eap7-wildfly-transaction-client-0:1.1.11-1.Final_redhat_00001.1.el6eap | 2020-09-07 | redhat |
| redhat | eap7-wildfly-transaction-client-0:1.1.11-1.Final_redhat_00001.1.el7eap | 2020-09-07 | redhat |
| redhat | eap7-wildfly-http-client-0:1.0.22-1.Final_redhat_00001.1.el7eap | 2020-08-17 | redhat |
| redhat | eap7-wildfly-http-client-0:1.0.22-1.Final_redhat_00001.1.el8eap | 2020-08-17 | redhat |
| redhat | eap7-wildfly-http-client-0:1.0.22-1.Final_redhat_00001.1.el6eap | 2020-08-17 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(2 across 1 ecosystem)
Maven(2)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| dom4j:dom4j | 1.1 ... 1.6.1 (17 versions) | — | — |
| org.dom4j:dom4j | 2.1.0, 2.1.1 | 2.1.3 | — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(7)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
- Red HatRHSA-2020:3637MODERATE2020-04-15
RHSA-2020:3637 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2020:3638MODERATE2020-04-15
RHSA-2020:3638 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2020:3639MODERATE2020-04-15
RHSA-2020:3639 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2020:3642MODERATE2020-04-15
RHSA-2020:3642 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2020:4960MODERATE2020-04-15
RHSA-2020:4960 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2020:4961MODERATE2020-04-15
RHSA-2020:4961 — Moderate
- UbuntuUSN-4575-1MEDIUM
dom4j vulnerability
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 12× in last 7d / 44× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 13:24 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 68 moreShow fewer
- 2026-07-01 22:31 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 03:13 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-27 03:59 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-27 03:59 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-25 09:46 UTCOSV refresh
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2020-10683?
When was CVE-2020-10683 disclosed?
Is CVE-2020-10683 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-10683?
How do I remediate CVE-2020-10683?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2020-10683
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2020-10683?
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