Answer in brief
CVE-2026-62971 records a High severity (CVSS 7.2) vulnerability in OWASP CRS: XML Attribute Value Bypass. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps coreruleset/coreruleset (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 7.2. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps coreruleset/coreruleset (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| coreruleset/corerulesetgeneric | <3.3.10 || <4.25.1 || <4.28.0 | 3.3.10, 4.25.1, 4.28.0 |
Published upstream
Nov 11, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Nov 11, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Nov 11, 2026
The OWASP core rule set (CRS) is a set of generic attack detection rules for use with compatible web application firewalls. Prior to versions 3.3.10, 4.25.1, and 4.28.0, CRS rules in the 921 (protocol-attack), 930 (LFI), 931 (RFI), 932 (RCE), 933 (PHP), 934 (generic), 941 (XSS), 942 (SQLi), and 943 (session-fixation) families inspect XML request bodies via the XPath expression XML:/*. That expression matches only element text nodes — it does not match XML attribute values. As a result, an attacker who places an attack payload inside an XML attribute (e.g. <a href="javascript:alert(1)=window.name"></a> or <a value="' OR 1=1 --"></a>) bypasses CRS detection entirely. This is verified empirically against a local CRS test instance and against the public CRS sandbox. The bypass affects approximately 159 rules across 9 rule files and applies at every paranoia level (PL1 through PL4), since the variable list is more or less shared across PLs. The 944 (Java) family is the only one that correctly includes XML://@* in addition to XML:/* and is therefore unaffected. This issue has been patched in versions 3.3.10, 4.25.1, and 4.28.0.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.