Apache Log4j Core's XmlLayout, in versions up to and including 2.25.3, fails to sanitize characters forbidden by the XML 1.0 specification, producing invalid XML output whenever a log message or MDC value contains such characters.
The impact depends on the StAX implementation in use:
Users are advised to upgrade to Apache Log4j Core 2.25.4, which corrects this issue by sanitizing forbidden characters before XML output.
{
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-116"
],
"severity": "MODERATE",
"github_reviewed": true,
"nvd_published_at": "2026-04-10T16:16:31Z",
"github_reviewed_at": "2026-04-10T21:16:41Z"
}