cve.bz

CAPEC-147

XML Ping of the Death

Medium severityLow likelihoodDetailed pattern

An attacker initiates a resource depletion attack where a large number of small XML messages are delivered at a sufficiently rapid rate to cause a denial of service or crash of the target. Transactions such as repetitive SOAP transactions can deplete resources faster than a simple flooding attack because of the additional resources used by the SOAP protocol and the resources necessary to process SOAP messages. The transactions used are immaterial as long as they cause resource utilization on the target. In other words, this is a normal flooding attack augmented by using messages that will require extra processing on the target.

On this page

Ask an AI about this attack pattern

ChatGPTClaudeGoogle AI Mode

Show the promptExplain the attack pattern CAPEC-147: XML Ping of the Death: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/147.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/147?via=ask-ai-copy, which lists recent CVEs with the weaknesses it exploits. Cite the sources.

Opens a third-party assistant; its answer is its own, not cve.bz's. The prompt holds only this attack pattern's id and public links.

How the attack unfolds

  1. Explore

    The attacker looks for a way in.

    1. [Survey the target] Using a browser or an automated tool, an attacker records all instance of web services to process XML requests.

      2 techniques
      • Use an automated tool to record all instances of URLs to process XML requests.
      • Use a browser to manually explore the website and analyze how the application processes XML requests.

  2. Exploit

    They carry out the attack.

    1. [Launch a resource depletion attack] The attacker delivers a large number of small XML messages to the target URLs found in the explore phase at a sufficiently rapid rate. It causes denial of service to the target application.

      1 technique
      • Send a large number of crafted small XML messages to the target URL.

Prerequisites

  • The target must receive and process XML transactions.

Skills required

  • Low skill

    To send small XML messages

  • High skill

    To use distributed network to launch the attack

Resources required

  • Transaction generator(s)/source(s) and ability to cause arrival of messages at the target with sufficient rapidity to overload target. Larger targets may be able to handle large volumes of requests so the attacker may require significant resources (such as a distributed network) to affect the target. However, the resources required of the attacker would be less than in the case of a simple flooding attack against the same target.

Consequences

What a successful attack can lead to
ImpactAffectsNote
Resource ConsumptionAvailabilityDoS: resource consumption (other)

Mitigations

  • Design: Build throttling mechanism into the resource allocation. Provide for a timeout mechanism for allocated resources whose transaction does not complete within a specified interval.

  • Implementation: Provide for network flow control and traffic shaping to control access to the resources.

Weaknesses it exploits

  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

Recent CVEs with these weaknesses

  1. –CVE-2026-86531

    The embedded OpenEJB HTTP server does not limit the size of incoming request bodies or of multipart requests, and does not remove the temporary files it creates for multipart parts. A remote unauthenticated attacker can cause excessive mem…

  2. 7.0CVE-2026-114359

    Eclipse Kura downloads deployment packages (DPs) from a remote URL without any limit on the size of the data it receives. A malicious or compromised HTTP(S) server, or an attacker able to tamper with a plain-HTTP download, can stream an ar…

  3. 8.7CVE-2026-60040

    An unauthenticated remote attacker can perform a DoS in the backends backup creation function. This can result in a total loss of availability.

  4. 7.5CVE-2026-125111

    Rack is a modular Ruby web server interface. Prior to 2.2.25, 3.1.23, and 3.2.8, Rack::Multipart::Parser can retain parsed data in its internal StringScanner buffer when reads end inside or immediately after multipart headers. An unauthent…

  5. 8.7CVE-2026-123817

    AIOHTTP is an asynchronous HTTP client/server framework for asyncio and Python. Prior to 3.14.4, the WebSocket reader retains one bytes object for each transport read while reassembling an incomplete frame. A malicious peer can split a fra…

  6. 6.8CVE-2026-125224

    FFmpeg through 9.0.2 contains a denial of service vulnerability in libavcodec/vorbis_parser.c that re-parses invalid extradata for every packet when valid_extradata remains false. Attackers can supply crafted Ogg or Matroska Vorbis streams…

  7. 6.8CVE-2026-125205

    FFmpeg through 9.0.2 contains an unbounded memory allocation vulnerability in the av1_frame_merge bitstream filter that allows attackers to exhaust memory by never sending a temporal delimiter OBU. Attackers can supply a crafted .obu file …

  8. 5.7CVE-2026-125186

    FFmpeg through 9.0.2 contains an uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in the dts2pts bitstream filter that allows attackers to exhaust CPU through unbounded per-packet POC node allocation. Attackers can supply a crafted H.264 pa…

The newest records naming one of them. Each weakness's page lists them all.

Part of

Examples

Consider the case of attack performed against the createCustomerBillingAccount Web Service for an online stor…

Consider the case of attack performed against the createCustomerBillingAccount Web Service for an online store. In this case, the createCustomerBillingAccount Web Service receives a huge number of simultaneous requests, containing nonsense billing account creation information (the small XML messages). The createCustomerBillingAccount Web Services may forward the messages to other Web Services for processing. The application suffers from a high load of requests, potentially leading to a complete loss of availability the involved Web Service.

MITRE's words, unchanged: CAPEC-147 at MITRE. CAPEC is Copyright © 2007–2026, The MITRE Corporation, used under the CAPEC terms of use: “The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) hereby grants you a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC™) for research, development, and commercial purposes. Any copy you make for such purposes is authorized provided that you reproduce MITRE’s copyright designation and this license in any such copy.” CAPEC and the CAPEC logo are trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Credits. All attack patterns.