7.5
HIGH CVSS 3.1
CVE-2026-90885
Apache Camel: Camel-Saxon XML External Entity Processing - XQueryBuilder Parsed a Message Body That Was Already a javax.xml.transform.Source With Saxon's Default Parser Settings, so an External Entity Declared in That Body Was Resolved
Description

Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference vulnerability in Apache Camel Saxon component. This issue affects Apache Camel: from 4.0.0 before 4.18.5, from 4.19.0 before 4.22.2. XQueryBuilder in camel-saxon, which evaluates expressions for the xquery language and the xquery component, built its default Saxon Configuration with parse options that set only a whitespace stripping rule, leaving the XML parser at its defaults, under which a DOCTYPE declaration is accepted and external entities are resolved. A message body of type String or byte[], or any body read as an InputStream, is first turned into a javax.xml.transform.Source by Camel's own XML type converters, which configure the parser against external entities, so those bodies were not affected. A body that was already a Source, however, was handed to Saxon unchanged, and when that Source still had to be parsed, as a stream-based Source does, Saxon parsed it with that Configuration, bypassing the protection applied to the other body types. Such a body arises, for example, after a route converts the message with convertBodyTo(Source.class), or when a component or processor earlier in the route sets the body to a stream-based Source. A DOCTYPE with an external subset, or an external entity, declared in that body was therefore resolved and expanded into the document the expression was evaluated against. An external sender whose XML reaches an XQuery expression or an xquery endpoint in that form could read files readable by the Camel process and cause the process to issue requests to hosts the document names. No non-default option is required, since the default Configuration is used whenever the route does not supply one of its own. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.23.0, which fixes the issue. If users are on the 4.22.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.22.2. If users are on the 4.18.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.18.5. The 4.14.x releases stream and earlier, as well as the 4.15.x to 4.17.x and 4.19.x to 4.21.x release lines, reached end of life before this issue was resolved and will not receive a fix, so deployments on them must move to a supported release. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, do not evaluate XQuery over a message body that is already a javax.xml.transform.Source when that body carries XML from an untrusted sender, or set the configuration option of the xquery endpoint or language to a Saxon Configuration whose parse options refuse a DOCTYPE declaration and disable external entities and external DTD loading, which is what the fixed releases now apply by default.

INFO

Published Date :

Oct. 26, 2026, 3:16 p.m.

Last Modified :

Oct. 26, 2026, 4:54 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2026-90885 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

ID Vendor Product Action
1 Apache camel
CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
CVSS 3.1 HIGH f0158376-9dc2-43b6-827c-5f631a4d8d09
CVSS 3.1 HIGH MITRE-CVE
CVSS 3.1 HIGH [email protected]
Solution
Upgrade Apache Camel to a fixed version to resolve XXE vulnerability.
  • Upgrade to Apache Camel version 4.23.0.
  • For 4.22.x, upgrade to 4.22.2.
  • For 4.18.x, upgrade to 4.18.5.
  • Avoid XQuery on untrusted Source bodies if upgrade is not possible.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-90885 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-90885 weaknesses.

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2026-90885 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2026-90885 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    Oct. 26, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added SSVC {'id': 'CVE-2026-90885', 'role': 'CISA Coordinator', 'options': [{'exploitation': 'none'}, {'automatable': 'yes'}, {'technicalImpact': 'partial'}], 'version': '2.0.3', 'timestamp': '2026-10-26T15:29:02.992870Z'}
  • New CVE Received by [email protected]

    Oct. 26, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Description Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference vulnerability in Apache Camel Saxon component. This issue affects Apache Camel: from 4.0.0 before 4.18.5, from 4.19.0 before 4.22.2. XQueryBuilder in camel-saxon, which evaluates expressions for the xquery language and the xquery component, built its default Saxon Configuration with parse options that set only a whitespace stripping rule, leaving the XML parser at its defaults, under which a DOCTYPE declaration is accepted and external entities are resolved. A message body of type String or byte[], or any body read as an InputStream, is first turned into a javax.xml.transform.Source by Camel's own XML type converters, which configure the parser against external entities, so those bodies were not affected. A body that was already a Source, however, was handed to Saxon unchanged, and when that Source still had to be parsed, as a stream-based Source does, Saxon parsed it with that Configuration, bypassing the protection applied to the other body types. Such a body arises, for example, after a route converts the message with convertBodyTo(Source.class), or when a component or processor earlier in the route sets the body to a stream-based Source. A DOCTYPE with an external subset, or an external entity, declared in that body was therefore resolved and expanded into the document the expression was evaluated against. An external sender whose XML reaches an XQuery expression or an xquery endpoint in that form could read files readable by the Camel process and cause the process to issue requests to hosts the document names. No non-default option is required, since the default Configuration is used whenever the route does not supply one of its own. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.23.0, which fixes the issue. If users are on the 4.22.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.22.2. If users are on the 4.18.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.18.5. The 4.14.x releases stream and earlier, as well as the 4.15.x to 4.17.x and 4.19.x to 4.21.x release lines, reached end of life before this issue was resolved and will not receive a fix, so deployments on them must move to a supported release. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, do not evaluate XQuery over a message body that is already a javax.xml.transform.Source when that body carries XML from an untrusted sender, or set the configuration option of the xquery endpoint or language to a Saxon Configuration whose parse options refuse a DOCTYPE declaration and disable external entities and external DTD loading, which is what the fixed releases now apply by default.
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
    Added CWE CWE-611
    Added Affected New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/90xxx/CVE-2026-90885.json">CVE-2026-90885</a>
    Added Reference https://camel.apache.org/security/CVE-2026-85250.html
    Added Reference https://camel.apache.org/security/CVE-2026-90885.html
    Added Reference https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/26344
    Added Reference https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/26728
    Added Reference https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/26730
    Added Reference https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CAMEL-24691
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.