Vulnerabilities in pkg:maven/com.charleskorn.kaml/kaml

PACKAGE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-c24f-2j3g-rg48
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Advisory Summary

CVE-2023-28118 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-776: Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion')) affecting Kaml libraries in the Maven ecosystem. The issue involves kaml has potential denial of service while parsing input with anchors and aliases. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.53.0.

2 Known Advisory Record(s)
Package Vulnerability Intelligence

pkg:maven/com.charleskorn.kaml/kaml

2 Known Advisory Record(s)

Vulnerability advisories affecting package pkg:maven/com.charleskorn.kaml/kaml. Select an advisory below to view technical details or fixes.

Advisory ID CVE / NVD Severity Summary
GHSA-c24f-2j3g-rg48 CVE-2023-28118 HIGH kaml has potential denial of service while parsing input with anchors and aliases
GHSA-fmm9-3gv8-58f4 CVE-2021-39194 MODERATE Improper Handling of Missing Values in kaml

CVE-2023-28118 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2023-28118
GHSA Identifier GHSA-c24f-2j3g-rg48
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-776: Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion')
Affected Product Kaml
Package Ecosystem Maven
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2023-28118

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Kaml dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

com.charleskorn.kaml:kaml fixed: 0.53.0 
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.charleskorn.kaml</groupId>
    <artifactId>kaml</artifactId>
    <version>0.53.0</version>
</dependency>
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=com.charleskorn.kaml

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Java application is affected by CVE-2023-28118, inspect your build dependencies using the Maven Dependency Plugin:

mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=com.charleskorn.kaml

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Kaml in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.53.0), your application is affected.

Note: The mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=com.charleskorn.kaml command inspects the resolved dependency graph declared in your project's POM files; it does not perform automated security scanning or inspect runtime dynamic classpaths. Always verify runtime container classpaths and shaded JARs.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-776: Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion'), where the product uses xml documents and allows their structure to be defined with a document type definition (dtd), but it does not properly control the number of recursive definitions of entities. In Kaml, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

### Impact Applications that use kaml to parse untrusted input containing anchors and aliases may consume excessive memory and crash. ### Patches Version 0.53.0 and later default to refusing to parse YAML documents containing anchors and aliases. ### Workarounds None. ### References Wikipedia has an explanation of this class of vulnerability: [billion laughs attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_laughs_attack) ### Acknowledgements Thank you to @gdude2002 for reporting this issue.

CVE-2023-28118 Affected Kaml Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.53.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
com.charleskorn.kaml:kaml
maven/com.charleskorn.kaml/kaml
Maven
< 0.53.0
0.53.0

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml/security/advisories/GHSA-c24f-2j3g-rg48
NVD — CVE-2023-28118 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-28118
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml/commit/5f82a2d7e00bfc307afca05d1dc4d7c50593531a
Kaml Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml
Kaml Release RELEASE
https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml/releases/tag/0.53.0

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-28118?
CVE-2023-28118 is a security vulnerability in Kaml involving kaml has potential denial of service while parsing input with anchors and aliases under CWE-776: Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion').
Which Kaml versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.53.0 across affected packages: com.charleskorn.kaml:kaml.
What version fixes CVE-2023-28118?
Upgrading to 0.53.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is kaml affected?
Yes, com.charleskorn.kaml:kaml is affected in releases prior to 0.53.0. Upgrade your dependency to 0.53.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-28118?
CVE-2023-28118 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2023-28118?
CVE-2023-28118 is classified under CWE-776: Improper Restriction of Recursive Entity References in DTDs ('XML Entity Expansion') (The product uses XML documents and allows their structure to be defined with a Document Type Definition (DTD), but it does not properly control the number of recursive definitions of entities.).
How can I check Maven dependencies for CVE-2023-28118?
Run the dependency tree command: 'mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=com.charleskorn.kaml'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-c24f-2j3g-rg48",
  "modified" : "2023-03-20T21:26:59Z",
  "published" : "2023-03-20T21:26:59Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2023-28118" ],
  "summary" : "kaml has potential denial of service while parsing input with anchors and aliases ",
  "details" : "### Impact\nApplications that use kaml to parse untrusted input containing anchors and aliases may consume excessive memory and crash.\n\n### Patches\nVersion 0.53.0 and later default to refusing to parse YAML documents containing anchors and aliases.\n\n### Workarounds\nNone.\n\n### References\nWikipedia has an explanation of this class of vulnerability: [billion laughs attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_laughs_attack)\n\n### Acknowledgements\nThank you to @gdude2002 for reporting this issue.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Maven",
      "name" : "com.charleskorn.kaml:kaml"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.53.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml/security/advisories/GHSA-c24f-2j3g-rg48"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-28118"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml/commit/5f82a2d7e00bfc307afca05d1dc4d7c50593531a"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml/releases/tag/0.53.0"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-776" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-03-20T21:26:59Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2023-03-20T13:15:00Z"
  }
}