lxml: Default configuration of iterparse() and ETCompatXMLParser() allows XXE to local files
### Impact Using either of the two parsers in the default configuration (with `resolve_entities=True`) allows untrusted XML input to read local files. ### Patches lxml 6.1.0 changes the default to `resolve_entities='internal'`, thus disallowing local file access by default. ### Workarounds Setting the `resolve_entities` option explicitly to `resolve_entities='internal'` or `resolve_entities=False` disables the local file access. ### Resources Original report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/lxml/+bug/2146291 The default option was changed to `resolve_entities='internal'` for the normal XML and HTML parsers in lxml 5.0. The default was not changed for `iterparse()` and `ETCompatXMLParser()` at the time. lxml 6.1 makes the safe option the default for all parsers.
describes (1)
Related CVEs.
| ID | severity | exploitable | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-41066US | — | — | ||
lxml is a library for processing XML and HTML in the Python language. Prior to 6.1.0, using either of the two parsers in the default configuration (with resolve_entities=True) allo… | ||||
references
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/lxml/+bug/2146291WEB
- https://github.com/lxml/lxmlPACKAGE
- https://github.com/lxml/lxml/releases/tag/lxml-6.1.0WEB
- https://github.com/lxml/lxml/security/advisories/GHSA-vfmq-68hx-4jfwWEB
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/lxml/PYSEC-2026-87.yamlWEB
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41066ADVISORY
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