PT-2026-46101 · Pypi · Docling

Published 2026-06-03 · Updated 2026-06-03

OSV

CVSS v3.1

7.5

High

Base vector

AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Impact

The USPTO patent XML parser used the standard xml.sax.parseString() without protection against XML External Entity (XXE) attacks. An attacker could craft malicious USPTO patent XML files with external entity references that could:

• Read arbitrary files from the server filesystem
• Perform Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) attacks
• Cause denial of service through entity expansion (Billion Laughs attack)

The vulnerability affects three USPTO patent format parsers: ICE (v4.x), Grant v2.5, and Application v1.x.

Patches

Fixed in version 2.74.0. The parser now uses defusedxml.sax.make parser() with secure configuration that blocks external entity resolution (feature external ges=False, feature external pes=False) while allowing DTD declarations required by USPTO files. This prevents XXE attacks while maintaining compatibility with the USPTO XML format.

Workarounds

Avoid processing USPTO patent XML files from untrusted sources. Implement resource limits (memory, CPU time) when processing patent documents.

References

• Fix release: v2.74.0

Fix

XML Entity Expansion

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-776

Related Identifiers

GHSA-M88R-RG27-5XFG

Affected Products

Docling

References · 4

• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-m88r-rg27-5xfg · Vendor Advisory
• https://github.com/docling-project/docling · Note
• https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.74.0 · Note
• https://github.com/docling-project/docling/security/advisories/GHSA-m88r-rg27-5xfg · Note