CVE-2014-3600 in ActiveMQ
Summary
by MITRE
XML external entity (XXE) vulnerability in Apache ActiveMQ 5.x before 5.10.1 allows remote consumers to have unspecified impact via vectors involving an XPath based selector when dequeuing XML messages.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/21/2021
The CVE-2014-3600 vulnerability represents a critical XML external entity processing flaw within Apache ActiveMQ versions 5.x prior to 5.10.1. This vulnerability specifically affects the message broker's handling of XML content within XPath-based selectors during message dequeuing operations. The flaw resides in how ActiveMQ processes XML messages that contain external entity references, creating a potential attack vector for remote adversaries to exploit the system's XML parsing capabilities.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and sanitization within ActiveMQ's XML message processing pipeline. When the system encounters XML messages with XPath selectors that reference external entities, it fails to properly restrict or validate these external references. This behavior aligns with CWE-611, which categorizes improper restriction of XML external entity reference as a significant security weakness. The vulnerability becomes particularly dangerous when remote consumers submit malicious XML messages containing crafted external entity declarations that can be resolved by the broker during message processing.
From an operational impact perspective, this XXE vulnerability can enable attackers to perform various malicious activities including but not limited to server-side request forgery attacks, internal network reconnaissance, and potentially arbitrary code execution depending on the underlying system configuration. The unspecified impact mentioned in the CVE description suggests that the vulnerability could be leveraged for multiple attack vectors, making it particularly concerning for enterprise environments where ActiveMQ serves as a critical messaging infrastructure component. Attackers could potentially access internal resources, exfiltrate data, or disrupt service availability through carefully crafted XML messages that exploit this flaw during the XPath selection process.
The exploitation of this vulnerability requires minimal privileges as it targets the message broker's processing capabilities rather than requiring authentication to the system itself. This makes it especially dangerous in environments where message producers have access to the broker without proper access controls. The attack surface extends to any system utilizing ActiveMQ 5.x versions before 5.10.1 that processes XML messages with XPath selectors, potentially affecting financial services, healthcare systems, and other enterprise environments that rely on robust messaging infrastructure. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including upgrading to ActiveMQ 5.10.1 or later, implementing proper XML input validation, and restricting external entity references in message processing pipelines. Additionally, network segmentation and monitoring of message broker communications can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of XML security practices and proper input validation in enterprise messaging systems, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for XML external entity processing attacks within enterprise environments.