CVE-2026-34480

01/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.

02/Affected products

apache: log4j

03/References6

• lists.apache.org/thread/5x0hcnng0chhghp6jgjdp3qmbbhfjzhb Mailing ListVendor Advisory
• logging.apache.org/security.html#CVE-2026-34480 Vendor Advisory
• github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/pull/4077 Issue TrackingPatch
• logging.apache.org/cyclonedx/vdr.xml Product
• logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/layouts.html#XmlLayout Technical Description
• www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/04/10/9 Mailing ListThird Party Advisory