New to CAPEC? Start Here
Home > CAPEC List > CAPEC-197: Exponential Data Expansion (Version 3.9)  

CAPEC-197: Exponential Data Expansion

Attack Pattern ID: 197
Abstraction: Detailed
View customized information:
+ Description
An adversary submits data to a target application which contains nested exponential data expansion to produce excessively large output. Many data format languages allow the definition of macro-like structures that can be used to simplify the creation of complex structures. However, this capability can be abused to create excessive demands on a processor's CPU and memory. A small number of nested expansions can result in an exponential growth in demands on memory.
+ Alternate Terms

Term: Billion Laughs Attack

Term: XML Bomb

Term: XML Entity Expansion (XEE)

+ Likelihood Of Attack

High

+ Typical Severity

Medium

+ Relationships
Section HelpThis table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern. These relationships are defined as ChildOf and ParentOf, and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as CanFollow, PeerOf, and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar attack patterns that the user may want to explore.
NatureTypeIDName
ChildOfStandard Attack PatternStandard Attack Pattern - A standard level attack pattern in CAPEC is focused on a specific methodology or technique used in an attack. It is often seen as a singular piece of a fully executed attack. A standard attack pattern is meant to provide sufficient details to understand the specific technique and how it attempts to accomplish a desired goal. A standard level attack pattern is a specific type of a more abstract meta level attack pattern.230Serialized Data with Nested Payloads
CanFollowDetailed Attack PatternDetailed Attack Pattern - A detailed level attack pattern in CAPEC provides a low level of detail, typically leveraging a specific technique and targeting a specific technology, and expresses a complete execution flow. Detailed attack patterns are more specific than meta attack patterns and standard attack patterns and often require a specific protection mechanism to mitigate actual attacks. A detailed level attack pattern often will leverage a number of different standard level attack patterns chained together to accomplish a goal.228DTD Injection
Section HelpThis table shows the views that this attack pattern belongs to and top level categories within that view.
View NameTop Level Categories
Domains of AttackSoftware
Mechanisms of AttackAbuse Existing Functionality
+ Execution Flow
Explore

  1. Survey the target: An adversary determines the input data stream that is being processed by a data parser that supports using subsitituion on the victim's side.

    Techniques
    Use an automated tool to record all instances of URLs to process requests.
    Use a browser to manually explore the website and analyze how the application processes requests.
Experiment

  1. Craft malicious payload: The adversary crafts a malicious message containing nested exponential expansion that completely uses up available server resources. See the "Example Instances" section for details on how to craft this malicious payload.

Exploit

  1. Send the message: Send the malicious crafted message to the target URL.

+ Prerequisites
This type of attack requires that the target must receive input but either fail to provide an upper limit for entity expansion or provide a limit that is so large that it does not preclude significant resource consumption.
+ Skills Required
[Level: Low]
Ability to craft nested data expansion messages.
+ Resources Required
None: No specialized resources are required to execute this type of attack.
+ Consequences
Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the attack pattern. The Scope identifies the security property that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in their attack. 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 pattern will be used to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.
ScopeImpactLikelihood
Availability
Unreliable Execution
Resource Consumption
+ Mitigations
Design: Use libraries and templates that minimize unfiltered input. Use methods that limit entity expansion and throw exceptions on attempted entity expansion.
Implementation: For XML based data - disable altogether the use of inline DTD schemas when parsing XML objects. If a DTD must be used, normalize, filter and use an allowlist and parse with methods and routines that will detect entity expansion from untrusted sources.
+ Example Instances

The most common example of this type of attack is the "many laughs" attack (sometimes called the 'billion laughs' attack). For example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE lolz [
<!ENTITY lol "lol">
<!ENTITY lol2 "&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;">
<!ENTITY lol3 "&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;">
<!ENTITY lol4 "&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;">
<!ENTITY lol5 "&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;">
<!ENTITY lol6 "&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;">
<!ENTITY lol7 "&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6">
<!ENTITY lol8 "&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;">
<!ENTITY lol9 "&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;">

]>
<lolz>&lol9;</lolz>

This is well formed and valid XML according to the DTD. Each entity increases the number entities by a factor of 10. The line of XML containing lol9; expands out exponentially to a message with 10^9 entities. A small message of a few KBs in size can easily be expanded into a few GB of memory in the parser. By including 3 more entities similar to the lol9 entity in the above code to the DTD, the program could expand out over a TB as there will now be 10^12 entities. Depending on the robustness of the target machine, this can lead to resource depletion, application crash, or even the execution of arbitrary code through a buffer overflow.

This example is similar, but uses YAML. This was used to attack Kubernetes [REF-686]

a: &a ["lol","lol","lol","lol","lol","lol","lol","lol","lol"]
b: &b [*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a]
c: &c [*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b]
d: &d [*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c]
e: &e [*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d]
f: &f [*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e]
g: &g [*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f]
h: &h [*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g]
i: &i [*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h]
+ Taxonomy Mappings
Relevant to the WASC taxonomy mapping
Entry IDEntry Name
44XML Entity Expansion
+ References
[REF-64] Amit Klein. "Multiple vendors XML parser (and SOAP/WebServices server) Denial of Service attack using DTD". <http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/303509>.
[REF-65] Pete Lindstrom. "Attacking & Defending Web Services". SPiRE Security. 2002. <http://www.webtorials.com/main/comnet/cn2003/web-service/24.pdf>.
[REF-66] Elliotte Rusty Harold. "Tip: Configure SAX parsers for secure processing". IBM developerWorks. IBM. 2005-05-27. <http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tipcfsx.html>.
[REF-67] Bryan Sullivan. "XML Denial of Service Attacks and Defenses". <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee335713.aspx>.
[REF-67] Bryan Sullivan. "XML Denial of Service Attacks and Defenses". <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee335713.aspx>.
+ Content History
Submissions
Submission DateSubmitterOrganization
2014-06-23
(Version 2.6)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Modifications
Modification DateModifierOrganization
2017-08-04
(Version 2.11)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated Resources_Required
2018-07-31
(Version 2.12)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated References
2020-07-30
(Version 3.3)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated Mitigations
2020-12-17
(Version 3.4)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated Related_Attack_Patterns, Taxonomy_Mappings
2021-10-21
(Version 3.6)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated @Name, Alternate_Terms, Description, Example_Instances, Execution_Flow, Mitigations, Prerequisites, Related_Weaknesses, Skills_Required
2022-02-22
(Version 3.7)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated Execution_Flow
2022-09-29
(Version 3.8)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated Example_Instances
Previous Entry Names
Change DatePrevious Entry Name
2021-10-21
(Version 3.6)
XML Entity Expansion
More information is available — Please select a different filter.
Page Last Updated or Reviewed: October 21, 2021
 

Use of the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC), and the associated references from this website are subject to the Terms of Use. CAPEC 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 © 2007–2024, The MITRE Corporation. CAPEC and the CAPEC logo are trademarks of The MITRE Corporation.