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CVE-2019-0228

35
FAUCET Score

CVE-2019-0228 is a critical XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability affecting Apache PDFBox 2.0.14, as well as products from Fedora Project and Oracle that incorporate this library. The flaw stems from improper XML parser initialization, allowing unauthenticated attackers to craft malicious XFDF files to achieve high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Despite its CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL), there is currently no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
2.0.14CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:pdfbox:2.0.14:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
3.3.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:james:3.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
3.4.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:james:3.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
29CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:29:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
30CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:30:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

9.8CRITICAL

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
9.45%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
94.9%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-24
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0945 is in the 90th percentile among its peer group of 36,829 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.3 Bluesky, 0.3 Mastodon, and 2.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (1)

mavenpatch availablevia ghsa
Product: org.apache.pdfbox:pdfboxFixed in: 2.0.15

Vendor Advisories (2)

mavenGHSA-c9jj-3wvg-q65hcritical

Vulnerability that affects org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox

Jul 5, 2019
redhatCVE-2019-0228Moderate

pdfbox: XML External Entity (XXE) attacks via a crafted XFDF

Apr 12, 2019

References

lists.apache.org / thread.html/1a3756557f8cb02790b7183ccf7665ae23f608a421c4f723113bca79%40%3Cusers.pdfbox.apache.org%3E
lists.apache.org / thread.html/8a19bd6d43e359913341043c2a114f91f9e4ae170059539ad1f5673c%40%3Ccommits.tika.apache.org%3E
lists.apache.org / thread.html/bc8db1bf459f1ad909da47350ed554ee745abe9f25f2b50cad4e06dd%40%3Cserver-dev.james.apache.org%3E
lists.apache.org / thread.html/be86fcd7cd423a3fe6b73a3cb9d7cac0b619d0deb99e6b5d172c98f4%40%3Ccommits.tika.apache.org%3E
lists.apache.org / thread.html/r0a2141abeddae66dd57025f1681c8425834062b7c0c7e0b1d830a95d%40%3Cusers.pdfbox.apache.org%3E
lists.apache.org / thread.html/r32b8102392a174b17fd19509a9e76047f74852b77b7bf46af95e45a2%40%3Cserver-dev.james.apache.org%3E
lists.fedoraproject.org / archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/6HKVPTJWZGUB4MH4AAOWMRJHRDBYFHGJ
lists.fedoraproject.org / archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/POPOGHJ5CVMUVCRQU7APBAN5IVZGZFDX
oracle.com / security-alerts/cpuapr2020.html
Third Party Advisory
oracle.com / security-alerts/cpuApr2021.html
Third Party Advisory
oracle.com / /security-alerts/cpujul2021.html
Third Party Advisory
oracle.com / security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html
Third Party Advisory