# CVE-2026-78224: XSLT Transformer Step XXE injection

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-78224-xslt-transformer-step-xxe-injection  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-09-11. Updated: 2026-09-26  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-78224 · Severity: high · CVSS 8.2 · Published 2026-09-11

An XSLT processing component fails to properly configure its XML transformation engine with security protections, allowing attackers to inject malicious XML entity definitions. This can lead to unauthorized file disclosure from the affected system and cause resource exhaustion attacks that disrupt service availability.

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-78224 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-78224 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-78224?** High severity, with a CVSS score of 8.2, published 11 September 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** <UNKNOWN>.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-78224?** No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

**How is CVE-2026-78224 attacked?** It is attacked over the network.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-78224?** Check whether anything you run is named in the advisory. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

## Technical details

This vulnerability is an XML External Entity (XXE) injection flaw in an XSLT Transformer Step that instantiates a TransformerFactory without disabling external entity processing and other XML attack surface hardening. The root cause is the lack of security-focused factory attribute configuration (such as disabling DOCTYPE declarations, entity expansion, and external schema access). An attacker who can supply or influence XSLT input can craft malicious XML payloads to read arbitrary files from the system (data exfiltration) or trigger billion-laughs/quadratic blowup denial-of-service attacks. The attack vector depends on whether XSLT input is network-accessible or requires local/authenticated access; no fix availability is mentioned in the advisory text.

## Affected products

- <UNKNOWN>

## Timeline

- 2026-09-11: disclosed

## References

- [https://github.com/cisagov/CSAF/blob/develop/csaf_files/OT/white/2026/icsma-26-253-01.json](https://github.com/cisagov/CSAF/blob/develop/csaf_files/OT/white/2026/icsma-26-253-01.json)
- [https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-medical-advisories/icsma-26-253-01](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-medical-advisories/icsma-26-253-01)