What is CVE-2026-40998?

CVE-2026-40998 is a high-severity vulnerability in Spring Web Services, classified under Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (XXE). CVSS score: 8.2/10. Published 2026-06-11.

How severe is CVE-2026-40998?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.2 out of 10.

XXE in Spring Web Services

CVE-2026-40998

Jaxp13XPathTemplate evaluated XPath expressions for StreamSource and SAXSource inputs using a code path that parsed attacker-controlled XML with the JDK's default DocumentBuilderFactory behavior instead of Spring's hardened parser configur…

Vulnerability class: XXE (XML External Entity)

EPSS: 0.004 (27.8th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.2 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N.

Affected products

Spring Web Services — versions 5.0.0, 4.1.0, 4.0.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

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

References

security@vmware.com

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-40998?: CVE-2026-40998 is a high-severity vulnerability in Spring Web Services, classified under Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (XXE). CVSS score: 8.2/10. Published 2026-06-11.
How severe is CVE-2026-40998?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.2 out of 10.