Apache Log4j Core's XmlLayout https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/layouts.html#XmlLayout , in versions up to and including 2.25.3, fails to sanitize characters forbidden by the XML 1.0 specification https://www.w3.org/TR/xml/#charsets producing invalid XML output whenever a log message or MDC value contains such characters.

The impact depends on the StAX implementation in use:

* JRE built-in StAX: Forbidden characters are silently written to the output, producing malformed XML. Conforming parsers must reject such documents with a fatal error, which may cause downstream log-processing systems to drop the affected records.
* Alternative StAX implementations (e.g., Woodstox https://github.com/FasterXML/woodstox , a transitive dependency of the Jackson XML Dataformat module): An exception is thrown during the logging call, and the log event is never delivered to its intended appender, only to Log4j's internal status logger.


Users are advised to upgrade to Apache Log4j Core 2.25.4, which corrects this issue by sanitizing forbidden characters before XML output.

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Fri, 10 Apr 2026 17:30:00 +0000

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Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0000

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Description Apache Log4j Core's XmlLayout https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/layouts.html#XmlLayout , in versions up to and including 2.25.3, fails to sanitize characters forbidden by the XML 1.0 specification https://www.w3.org/TR/xml/#charsets producing invalid XML output whenever a log message or MDC value contains such characters. The impact depends on the StAX implementation in use: * JRE built-in StAX: Forbidden characters are silently written to the output, producing malformed XML. Conforming parsers must reject such documents with a fatal error, which may cause downstream log-processing systems to drop the affected records. * Alternative StAX implementations (e.g., Woodstox https://github.com/FasterXML/woodstox , a transitive dependency of the Jackson XML Dataformat module): An exception is thrown during the logging call, and the log event is never delivered to its intended appender, only to Log4j's internal status logger. Users are advised to upgrade to Apache Log4j Core 2.25.4, which corrects this issue by sanitizing forbidden characters before XML output.
Title Apache Log4j Core: Silent log event loss in XmlLayout due to unescaped XML 1.0 forbidden characters
First Time appeared Apache
Apache log4j
Weaknesses CWE-116
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:apache:log4j:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Apache
Apache log4j
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 6.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N'}


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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: apache

Published:

Updated: 2026-04-10T16:18:19.775Z

Reserved: 2026-03-28T15:29:27.095Z

Link: CVE-2026-34480

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-04-10T16:16:31.463

Modified: 2026-04-10T17:17:02.577

Link: CVE-2026-34480

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses