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High, CVSS 7.5

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor in Apache Santuario

CVE-2021-40690GHSA-j8wc-gxx9-82hx

What to do

Vendor fix available. Upgrade each affected package to the fixed version on its release line (org.apache.santuario:xmlsec 2.2.3, 2.1.7), redeploy, then verify what is actually installed.

This page has no inventory attached, so it cannot say whether you are affected. A vendor fix is not proof that your deployment is fixed.

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Affected packages

Sources

Severity and exploitation
Exploitation
No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.
CVSS
7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS
  • CVE-2021-40690: 7.44% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 94.46 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.
Source description

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

All versions of Apache Santuario - XML Security for Java prior to 2.2.3 and 2.1.7 are vulnerable to an issue where the "secureValidation" property is not passed correctly when creating a KeyInfo from a KeyInfoReference element. This allows an attacker to abuse an XPath Transform to extract any local .xml files in a RetrievalMethod element.

Dates and revisions
Published by the source
Last modified by the source
Source last checked
  1. Revision 1 · created ·

    Published from ghsa record GHSA-j8wc-gxx9-82hx

Agent brief

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2021-40690

Advisory: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor in Apache Santuario
IDs: CVE-2021-40690, GHSA-j8wc-gxx9-82hx
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2021-40690 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 16:12 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: org.apache.santuario:xmlsec 2.2.3, 2.1.7. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Maven org.apache.santuario:xmlsec: affected >= 2.2.0, < 2.2.3; < 2.1.7; fixed in 2.2.3, 2.1.7

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Maven org.apache.santuario:xmlsec: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on org.apache.santuario:xmlsec.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-j8wc-gxx9-82hx (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-j8wc-gxx9-82hx lists affected ranges: Maven org.apache.santuario:xmlsec >=2.2.0 =0 <2.1.7)

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