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XML injection in Saxy via unescaped CDATA section terminator

2.1LowCNA
Exploited
No known exploitation
Fix
Fixed in 1.7.0
Who is exposed
Not reported

Do first: Upgrade to a fixed version: 1.7.0.

Published
Last modified
12/100 · provisional
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub

Summary

XML injection in the Saxy XML encoder lets an attacker who can supply text placed into a CDATA node break out of the section and insert their own markup into the serialized document. The attack is reached locally, without logging in, and an attacker gains the ability to modify document structure, but the flaw only matters for applications that render untrusted text as CDATA.

Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.

Read the original description

XML injection in the Saxy XML encoder. Saxy.Encoder.cdata/1 serializes a {:cdata, characters} node by wrapping the supplied characters between <![CDATA[ and ]]> and passing the payload through byte for byte. The encoder's character-data and attribute-value paths escape the XML metacharacters <, >, &, ", and ', but the CDATA path applies no neutralization at all. XML provides no character escaping mechanism inside a CDATA section, so the only correct way to represent a ]]> substring is to split the section and rejoin it as ]]]]><![CDATA[>. Saxy neither performs that split nor rejects the substring.

An application that renders untrusted text as CDATA, by building the node with Saxy.XML.cdata/1 and serializing it with Saxy.encode!/2 or Saxy.encode_to_iodata!/2, therefore lets an attacker terminate the section at a position of their choosing. Everything supplied after the ]]> is emitted outside any CDATA context and is parsed as markup, so a single attacker-controlled text field becomes attacker-controlled document structure: arbitrary sibling elements and attributes that the application never built. Downstream consumers of the serialized document accept the injected markup as genuine. Services that generate SOAP envelopes, RSS or Atom feeds, sitemaps, SVG, or XML exports from user-supplied content can have trusted fields forged or overridden. Applications that never place untrusted text in a CDATA node are not affected.

This issue affects saxy: from 0.7.0 before 1.7.0.

cve.now Index

12Pcve.now Index 12 of 100 · methodology v3 · provisional
  • Exploitation?/40Unknown. No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
  • Exposure?/25Unknown. No advisory context yet
  • Reach10/20Affects Hex packages
  • Severity2.1/10CVSS 2.1
  • No patch0/5No signal

What would change the score

  • Would score about 67 if added to CISA KEV
  • Would score about 62 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
  • Would score about 34 if advisories confirm default setups are exposed

What to do

  • Upgrade to a fixed version: 1.7.0.

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. First seen by cve.now

Affected versions

  • saxyHex

    From 0.7.0 · fixed in 1.7.0

  • qcam/saxy

    Version range not reported

  • saxyHex

    From 0.7.0 · fixed in 1.7.0

Evidence 5

  1. Advisory
  2. Patch
  3. Repository
  4. Link
  5. Link

Corrections

None so far.

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Questions about CVE-2026-66294

Is CVE-2026-66294 being exploited?

It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-66294?

saxy (Hex): from 0.7.0 before 1.7.0. saxy (Hex): from 0.7.0 before 1.7.0.Source: cve.now feed data

How do I fix CVE-2026-66294?

Upgrade to a fixed version: 1.7.0.Source: cve.now feed data