CWE - CWE-643: Improper Neutralization of Data within XPath Expressions ('XPath Injection') (4.18)

Home > CWE List > CWE-643: Improper Neutralization of Data within XPath Expressions ('XPath Injection') (4.18)

CWE Glossary Definition

CWE-643: Improper Neutralization of Data within XPath Expressions ('XPath Injection')

Weakness ID: 643

Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
Abstraction: Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.

View customized information:

For users who are interested in more notional aspects of a weakness. Example: educators, technical writers, and project/program managers. For users who are concerned with the practical application and details about the nature of a weakness and how to prevent it from happening. Example: tool developers, security researchers, pen-testers, incident response analysts. For users who are mapping an issue to CWE/CAPEC IDs, i.e., finding the most appropriate CWE for a specific issue (e.g., a CVE record). Example: tool developers, security researchers. For users who wish to see all available information for the CWE/CAPEC entry. For users who want to customize what details are displayed.

Edit Custom Filter

Description

The product uses external input to dynamically construct an XPath expression used to retrieve data from an XML database, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes that input. This allows an attacker to control the structure of the query.

Extended Description

The net effect is that the attacker will have control over the information selected from the XML database and may use that ability to control application flow, modify logic, retrieve unauthorized data, or bypass important checks (e.g. authentication).

Common Consequences

Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.

Impact	Details
Bypass Protection Mechanism	Scope: Access Control Controlling application flow (e.g. bypassing authentication).
Read Application Data	Scope: Confidentiality The attacker could read restricted XML content.

Potential Mitigations

Phase(s)	Mitigation
Implementation	Use parameterized XPath queries (e.g. using XQuery). This will help ensure separation between data plane and control plane.
Implementation	Properly validate user input. Reject data where appropriate, filter where appropriate and escape where appropriate. Make sure input that will be used in XPath queries is safe in that context.

Relationships

Section Help This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.

Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	91	XML Injection (aka Blind XPath Injection)
ChildOf	Class Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	943	Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Data Query Logic

Relevant to the view "Architectural Concepts" (View-1008)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1019	Validate Inputs

Modes Of Introduction

Section HelpThe different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.

Phase	Note
Implementation	REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic.

Applicable Platforms

Section HelpThis listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.

Languages

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Likelihood Of Exploit

High

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

Consider the following simple XML document that stores authentication information and a snippet of Java code that uses XPath query to retrieve authentication information:

(informative)

Example Language: XML

<users>

<user>

<login>john</login>
<password>abracadabra</password>
<home_dir>/home/john</home_dir>

</user>
<user>

</user>

</users>

The Java code used to retrieve the home directory based on the provided credentials is:

(bad code)

Example Language: Java

XPath xpath = XPathFactory.newInstance().newXPath();
XPathExpression xlogin = xpath.compile("//users/user[login/text()='" + login.getUserName() + "' and password/text() = '" + login.getPassword() + "']/home_dir/text()");
Document d = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().parse(new File("db.xml"));
String homedir = xlogin.evaluate(d);

Assume that user "john" wishes to leverage XPath Injection and login without a valid password. By providing a username "john" and password "' or ''='" the XPath expression now becomes

(attack code)

//users/user[login/text()='john' or ''='' and password/text() = '' or ''='']/home_dir/text()

This lets user "john" login without a valid password, thus bypassing authentication.

Detection Methods

Method	Details
Automated Static Analysis	Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.) Effectiveness: High

Method

Details

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

Effectiveness: High

Memberships

Section HelpThis MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	929	OWASP Top Ten 2013 Category A1 - Injection
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	990	SFP Secondary Cluster: Tainted Input to Command
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1308	CISQ Quality Measures - Security
MemberOf	ViewView - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries).	1340	CISQ Data Protection Measures
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1347	OWASP Top Ten 2021 Category A03:2021 - Injection
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1409	Comprehensive Categorization: Injection

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage ALLOWED

(this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)

Reason Acceptable-Use

Rationale

This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.

Comments

Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Notes

Relationship

This weakness is similar to other weaknesses that enable injection style attacks, such as SQL injection, command injection and LDAP injection. The main difference is that the target of attack here is the XML database.

Taxonomy Mappings

Mapped Taxonomy Name	Node ID	Fit	Mapped Node Name
WASC	39	XPath Injection
Software Fault Patterns	SFP24	Tainted input to command

References

[REF-531] Web Application Security Consortium. "XPath Injection".
<http://projects.webappsec.org/w/page/13247005/XPath%20Injection>. (URL validated: 2023年04月07日)

[REF-62] Mark Dowd, John McDonald and Justin Schuh. "The Art of Software Security Assessment". Chapter 17, "XPath Injection", Page 1070. 1st Edition. Addison Wesley. 2006.

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2008年01月30日 (CWE Draft 8, 2008年01月30日)	Evgeny Lebanidze	Cigital
2008年01月30日 (CWE Draft 8, 2008年01月30日)
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2024年02月29日 (CWE 4.14, 2024年02月29日)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2024年02月29日 (CWE 4.14, 2024年02月29日)	updated Demonstrative_Examples
2023年06月29日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年06月29日	updated Mapping_Notes
2023年04月27日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年04月27日	updated Detection_Factors, References, Relationships
2023年01月31日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年01月31日	updated Description
2021年10月28日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2021年10月28日	updated Relationships
2020年12月10日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020年12月10日	updated Relationships
2020年08月20日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020年08月20日	updated Relationships
2020年02月24日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020年02月24日	updated Relationships
2018年03月27日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2018年03月27日	updated Relationships
2017年11月08日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017年11月08日	updated Applicable_Platforms, Enabling_Factors_for_Exploitation, Modes_of_Introduction, Relationships
2014年07月30日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014年07月30日	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2014年06月23日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014年06月23日	updated Relationships
2012年10月30日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012年10月30日	updated Potential_Mitigations
2012年05月11日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012年05月11日	updated References, Relationships
2011年06月01日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011年06月01日	updated Common_Consequences
2010年12月13日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010年12月13日	updated Common_Consequences
2010年06月21日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010年06月21日	updated Enabling_Factors_for_Exploitation
2010年04月05日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010年04月05日	updated Description, Name
2010年02月16日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010年02月16日	updated Taxonomy_Mappings
2009年10月29日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009年10月29日	updated Common_Consequences
2009年05月27日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009年05月27日	updated Name
2009年03月10日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009年03月10日	updated Demonstrative_Examples
2008年10月14日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008年10月14日	updated Description, Name, References, Relationship_Notes
2008年09月08日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008年09月08日	updated Common_Consequences, Relationships
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2008年10月14日	Unsafe Treatment of XPath Input
2009年05月27日	Failure to Sanitize Data within XPath Expressions (aka 'XPath injection')
2010年04月05日	Failure to Sanitize Data within XPath Expressions ('XPath injection')

More information is available — Please edit the custom filter or select a different filter.

Page Last Updated: September 09, 2025

MITRE

Use of the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE™) and the associated references from this website are subject to the Terms of Use. CWE is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and managed by the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (HSSEDI) which is operated by The MITRE Corporation (MITRE). Copyright © 2006–2025, The MITRE Corporation. CWE, CWSS, CWRAF, and the CWE logo are trademarks of The MITRE Corporation.

HSSEDI