Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2014-8090

The REXML parser in Ruby 1.9.x before 1.9.3 patchlevel 551, 2.0.x before 2.0.0 patchlevel 598, and 2.1.x before 2.1.5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU and memory consumption) a crafted XML document containing an empty string in an entity that is used in a large number of nested entity references, aka an XML Entity Expansion (XEE) attack. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2013-1821 and CVE-2014-8080.

Security Impact Summary

CVE-2014-8090 is a security vulnerability that . Impacting 1 product from ruby-lang organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Documented in 2014, this vulnerability occurred amid the cloud computing expansion era, where traditional network perimeter security models were being reevaluated. Organizations were transitioning from isolated infrastructure to interconnected systems, creating new attack surfaces that vulnerabilities like this could exploit.

Published

2014-11-21T15:59:04.243

Last Modified

2025-04-12T10:46:40.837

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv2: 5.0 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: NONE
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: PARTIAL

Exploitability Score

10.0

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
NVD-CWE-Other

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	≤ 1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.0.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.0.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.0.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.0.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.0.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.0.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.0.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.0.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.1.1	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.1.2	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.1.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	2.1.4	Yes

References

http://advisories.mageia.org/MGASA-2014-0472.html ([email protected])
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2015/Sep/msg00008.html ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2014-12/msg00035.html ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-01/msg00000.html ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-01/msg00004.html ([email protected])
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1911.html ([email protected])
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1912.html ([email protected])
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1913.html ([email protected])
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1914.html ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/59948 ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/62050 ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/62748 ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3157 ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3159 ([email protected])
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2015:129 ([email protected])
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinjan2016-2867209.html ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/71230 ([email protected])
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2412-1 Patch, Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
https://support.apple.com/HT205267 ([email protected])
https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2014/11/13/rexml-dos-cve-2014-8090/ Exploit, Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://advisories.mageia.org/MGASA-2014-0472.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2015/Sep/msg00008.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2014-12/msg00035.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-01/msg00000.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-01/msg00004.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1911.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1912.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1913.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1914.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/59948 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/62050 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/62748 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3157 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3159 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2015:129 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinjan2016-2867209.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/71230 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2412-1 Patch, Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://support.apple.com/HT205267 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2014/11/13/rexml-dos-cve-2014-8090/ Exploit, Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For ruby-lang's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.