Safeguarding Your Systems: A Comprehensive Guide to XXE Protection
Article by Assaf Wilomousky Introduction XML External Entity (XXE) attacks pose a significant threat to web applications that parse XML input. This article outlines effective strategies to protect your systems from XXE vulnerabilities, drawing on recommendations from the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) and industry best practices. Understanding XXE XXE attacks occur when an XML parser processes external entity references within XML documents. Attackers can exploit these references to access sensitive files, perform denial of service attacks, or execute server-side request forgery. OWASP Top 10 Context XXE is listed in the OWASP Top 10 Web Application Security Risks, highlighting its severity and prevalence in modern web applications. Protection Strategies Disable XML External Entities: Configure XML parsers to disable external entity processing. Java example: Introduction XML External Entity (XXE) attacks pose a significant threat to web