What is CVE-2017-8056?

CVE-2017-8056 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Watchguard Fireware, classified under Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (XXE). CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2017-04-22.

How severe is CVE-2017-8056?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.

Is CVE-2017-8056 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

XXE in Watchguard Fireware

CVE-2017-8056

WatchGuard Fireware v11.12.1 and earlier mishandles requests referring to an XML External Entity (XXE), in the XML-RPC agent. This causes the Firebox wgagent process to crash. This process crash ends all authenticated sessions to the Firebox, including management connections, and prevents new authenticated sessions until the process has recovered. The Firebox may also experience an overall degradation in performance while the wgagent process recovers. An attacker could continuously send XML-RPC requests that contain references to external entities to perform a limited Denial of Service (DoS) attack against an affected Firebox.

Vulnerability class: XXE (XML External Entity)

Published 2017-04-22 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.051 (92.1th percentile), scored 2026-10-04.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 92nd percentile — 92.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.051 · newest: 0.051 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Watchguard Fireware

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-611 — Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (XXE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

itzexploit/CVE-2017-8056

References

www.sidertia.com/Home/Community/Blog/2017/04/17/Fixed-the-Fireware-Vulnerabilit… (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
packetstormsecurity.com/files/142177/watchguardfbxtm-xxeinject.txt (Exploit, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
www.watchguard.com/support/release-notes/fireware/11/en-US/EN_ReleaseNotes_Fire… (Release Notes, Vendor Advisory)
watchguardsupport.force.com/publicKB (Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-8056?: CVE-2017-8056 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Watchguard Fireware, classified under Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (XXE). CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2017-04-22.
How severe is CVE-2017-8056?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.
Is CVE-2017-8056 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.