A crafted XML request can be used to perform a DoS attack when using the Struts REST plugin
Summary A crafted XML request can be used to perform a DoS attack when using the Struts REST plugin Who should read this All Struts 2 developers and users which are using the REST plugin Impact of vulnerability A DoS attack is possible when using XStream handler with the Struts REST plugin Maximum security rating Medium Recommendation Upgrade to Struts 2.5.16 Affected Software Struts 2.1.1 - Struts 2.5.14.1 Reporter Yevgeniy Grushka & Alvaro Munoz from HPE CVE Identifier CVE-2018-1327 Problem The REST Plugin is using XStream library which is vulnerable and allow perform a DoS attack when using a malicious request with specially crafted XML payload. Solution Upgrade to the Apache Struts version 2.5.16 and switch to an optional Jackson XML handler as described here . Another option is to implement a custom XML handler based on the Jackson XML handler from the Apache Struts 2.5.16. Backward compatibility No backward incompatibility issues are expected.