CVE-2026-44018

Docling simplifies document processing by parsing diverse formats and providing integrations with the generative AI ecosystem. From 2.45.0 until 2.91.0, the METS-GBS backend's XML parsing and the input document format detection lacked security controls. An attacker could craft malicious METS-GBS archives that, when processed, could read sensitive files, exhaust system resources, or cause application crashes. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.91.0.

Docling simplifies document processing by parsing diverse formats and providing integrations with the generative AI ecosystem. From 2.45.0 until 2.91.0, the METS-GBS backend's XML parsing and the input document format detection lacked security controls. An attacker could craft malicious METS-GBS archives that, when processed, could read sensitive files, exhaust system resources, or cause application crashes. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.91.0.

Impact

The METS-GBS backend's XML parsing and the input document format detection lacked security controls, enabling:

• XML External Entity (XXE) attacks to read local files or cause denial of service
• Decompression bombs (zip bombs) to exhaust memory and disk space
• Unbounded archive extraction consuming system resources

An attacker could craft malicious METS-GBS archives that, when processed, could read sensitive files, exhaust system resources, or cause application crashes.

Patches

Fixed in version 2.91.0. The fix implements:

• Secure XML parsing with resolve_entities=False, load_dtd=False, and no_network=True
• Configurable limits: 300 MB total extraction size, 10 MB per file, 1000 member count
• Cumulative size tracking across all extractions
• Early termination when limits are exceeded
• Secure format detection of METS-GBS tar archives with _detect_mets_gbs() method: maximum file size (10 MB per file), maximum member count (1000 members), and exception handling to gracefully fail when limits are exceeded

Workarounds

Avoid processing METS-GBS archives from untrusted sources. If necessary, pre-validate archives in an isolated environment with resource limits.

References

• Fix release: v2.91.0

Docling simplifies document processing by parsing diverse formats and providing integrations with the generative AI ecosystem. From 2.45.0 until 2.91.0, the METS-GBS backend's XML parsing and the input document format detection lacked security controls. An attacker could craft malicious METS-GBS archives that, when processed, could read sensitive files, exhaust system resources, or cause application crashes. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.91.0.

Docling simplifies document processing by parsing diverse formats and providing integrations with the generative AI ecosystem. From 2.45.0 until 2.91.0, the METS-GBS backend's XML parsing and the input document format detection lacked security controls. An attacker could craft malicious METS-GBS archives that, when processed, could read sensitive files, exhaust system resources, or cause application crashes. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.91.0.

Impact

The METS-GBS backend's XML parsing and the input document format detection lacked security controls, enabling:

• XML External Entity (XXE) attacks to read local files or cause denial of service
• Decompression bombs (zip bombs) to exhaust memory and disk space
• Unbounded archive extraction consuming system resources

An attacker could craft malicious METS-GBS archives that, when processed, could read sensitive files, exhaust system resources, or cause application crashes.

Patches

Fixed in version 2.91.0. The fix implements:

• Secure XML parsing with resolve_entities=False, load_dtd=False, and no_network=True
• Configurable limits: 300 MB total extraction size, 10 MB per file, 1000 member count
• Cumulative size tracking across all extractions
• Early termination when limits are exceeded
• Secure format detection of METS-GBS tar archives with _detect_mets_gbs() method: maximum file size (10 MB per file), maximum member count (1000 members), and exception handling to gracefully fail when limits are exceeded

Workarounds

Avoid processing METS-GBS archives from untrusted sources. If necessary, pre-validate archives in an isolated environment with resource limits.

References

• Fix release: v2.91.0

Docling simplifies document processing by parsing diverse formats and providing integrations with the generative AI ecosystem. From 2.45.0 until 2.91.0, the METS-GBS backend's XML parsing and the input document format detection lacked security controls. An attacker could craft malicious METS-GBS archives that, when processed, could read sensitive files, exhaust system resources, or cause application crashes. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.91.0.