OWSLib vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) Injection
Impact
OWSLib's XML parser (which supports both lxml and xml.etree) does not disable entity resolution for lxml, and could lead to arbitrary file reads from an attacker-controlled XML payload. This affects all XML parsing in the codebase.
Patches
- Use only lxml for XML handling, adding
resolve_entities=Falsetolxml's parser: https://github.com/geopython/OWSLib/pull/863
Workarounds
patch_well_known_namespaces(etree)
etree.set_default_parser(
parser=etree.XMLParser(resolve_entities=False)
)References
Affected software
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| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Python (PyPI) | owslib | < 0.28.1 | 0.28.1 |
References
- https://github.com/geopython/OWSLib/security/advisories/GHSA-8h9c-r582-mggc
- https://github.com/geopython/OWSLib/pull/863/commits/b92687702be9576c0681bb11cad21eb631b9122f
- https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2022-131_owslib/
- https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5426
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-27476
- https://github.com/geopython/OWSLib/pull/863
- https://github.com/geopython/OWSLib
- https://github.com/geopython/OWSLib/releases/tag/0.28.1
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/owslib/PYSEC-2023-86.yaml
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/06/msg00032.html
- https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2022-131_owslib
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:L- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-611- Platform
- Python (PyPI)
- Package
owslib- Disclosed
- 07.03.2023
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 12:19
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2023-86 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-8h9c-r582-mggc - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: owslib
All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
This is the only known vulnerability of this package.
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