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No exploitation reportedAwaiting NVD analysis

CVE-2026-62971

OWASP CRS: XML Attribute Value Bypass

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2026-11-11
  • WeaknessCWE-138

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

The OWASP core rule set (CRS) is a set of generic attack detection rules for use with compatible web application firewalls. Prior to versions 3.3.10, 4.25.1, and 4.28.0, CRS rules in the 921 (protocol-attack), 930 (LFI), 931 (RFI), 932 (RCE), 933 (PHP), 934 (generic), 941 (XSS), 942 (SQLi), and 943 (session-fixation) families inspect XML request bodies via the XPath expression XML:/*. That expression matches only element text nodes — it does not match XML attribute values. As a result, an attacker who places an attack payload inside an XML attribute (e.g. <a href="javascript:alert(1)=window.name"></a> or <a value="' OR 1=1 --"></a>) bypasses CRS detection entirely. This is verified empirically against a local CRS test instance and against the public CRS sandbox. The bypass affects approximately 159 rules across 9 rule files and applies at every paranoia level (PL1 through PL4), since the variable list is more or less shared across PLs. The 944 (Java) family is the only one that correctly includes XML://@* in addition to XML:/* and is therefore unaffected. This issue has been patched in versions 3.3.10, 4.25.1, and 4.28.0.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2026-11-1117:27CVE publishedCNA

Versions per branch

Products declared by the CNA

As GitHub_M, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written. NVD lists no product for this CVE yet: this is the only product data so far.

  • coreruleset
    Affected
    • = < 3.3.10no fix stated
    • = < 4.25.1no fix stated
    • = < 4.28.0no fix stated

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2026-11-11

Neither OSV.dev nor the vendor advisories we read list affected versions for CVE-2026-62971 yet.

Full record on NVD

Fix

No fix published by the sources we read yet. NVD record

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

  • NVDCVE record2026-11-11
  • CNACVSS 3.17.22026-11-11
  • CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-1382026-11-11

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Published
2026-11-11

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-62971?

The OWASP core rule set (CRS) is a set of generic attack detection rules for use with compatible web application firewalls. Prior to versions 3.3.10, 4.25.1, and 4.28.0, CRS rules in the 921 (protocol-attack), 930 (LFI), 931 (RFI), 932 (RCE), 933 (PHP), 934 (generic), 941 (XSS), 942 (SQLi), and 943 (session-fixation) families inspect XML request bodies via the XPath expression XML:/*. That expression matches only element text nodes — it does not match XML attribute values. As a result, an attacker who places an attack payload inside an XML attribute (e.g. <a href="javascript:alert(1)=window.name"></a> or <a value="' OR 1=1 --"></a>) bypasses CRS detection entirely. This is verified empirically against a local CRS test instance and against the public CRS sandbox. The bypass affects approximately 159 rules across 9 rule files and applies at every paranoia level (PL1 through PL4), since the variable list is more or less shared across PLs. The 944 (Java) family is the only one that correctly includes XML://@* in addition to XML:/* and is therefore unaffected. This issue has been patched in versions 3.3.10, 4.25.1, and 4.28.0.

Is CVE-2026-62971 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2026-62971 has not been confirmed.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-62971?

CVE-2026-62971 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.2 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N.

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