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Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2017-12620 json

Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference in Apache OpenNLP

published 9y ago modified 4mo ago also GHSA-h22x-hm8g-rxpg , EUVD-2022-4039

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.0%
EPSS 3.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 87%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

When loading models or dictionaries that contain XML it is possible to perform an XXE attack, since Apache OpenNLP is a library, this only affects applications that load models or dictionaries from untrusted sources. The versions 1.5.0 to 1.5.3, 1.6.0, 1.7.0 to 1.7.2, 1.8.0 to 1.8.1 of Apache OpenNLP are affected.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.apache.opennlp:opennlp-tools 1.8.2
  • opennlp openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.9.5-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:11281-1

Is CVE-2017-12620 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2017-12620 updated cvss 5.6

opennlp: XXE while loading models or dictionaries with untrusted XML

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

3.04% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • opennlp.apache.org http://opennlp.apache.org/news/cve-2017-12620.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
GitHub 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.apache.opennlp:opennlp-tools
>=1.5.0, <1.8.2
1.8.2

Affected products

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache OpenNLP

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-611 Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.