CAPEC-279

SOAP Manipulation

High severityMedium likelihoodDetailed pattern

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is used as a communication protocol between a client and server to invoke web services on the server. It is an XML-based protocol, and therefore suffers from many of the same shortcomings as other XML-based protocols. Adversaries can make use of these shortcomings and manipulate the content of SOAP paramters, leading to undesirable behavior on the server and allowing the adversary to carry out a number of further attacks.

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How the attack unfolds
Prerequisites
Consequences
Weaknesses it exploits
Related attack patterns

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Explain the attack pattern CAPEC-279: SOAP Manipulation: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/279.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/279?via=ask-ai-copy, which lists recent CVEs with the weaknesses it exploits. Cite the sources.

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How the attack unfolds

Exploit
They carry out the attack.
1. [Find target application] The adversary needs to identify an application that uses SOAP as a communication protocol.
  1 technique
  - Observe HTTP traffic to an application and look for SOAP headers.
Experiment
They probe what they found.
1. [Detect Incorrect SOAP Parameter Handling] The adversary tampers with the SOAP message parameters and looks for indications that the tampering caused a change in behavior of the targeted application.
  3 techniques
  - Send more data than would seem reasonable for a field and see if the server complains.
  - Send nonsense data in a field that expects a certain subset, such as product names or sequence numbers, and see if the server complains.
  - Send XML metacharacters as data and see how the server responds.
Exploit
They carry out the attack.
1. [Manipulate SOAP parameters] The adversary manipulates SOAP parameters in a way that causes undesirable behavior for the server. This can result in denial of service, information disclosure, arbitrary code exection, and more.
  3 techniques
  - Create a recursive XML payload that will take up all of the memory on the server when parsed, resulting in a denial of service. This is known as the billion laughs attack.
  - Insert XML metacharacters into data fields that could cause the server to go into an error state when parsing. This could lead to a denial of service.
  - Insert a large amount of data into a field that should have a character limit, causing a buffer overflow.

Prerequisites

An application uses SOAP-based web service api.
An application does not perform sufficient input validation to ensure that user-controllable data is safe for an XML parser.
The targeted server either fails to verify that data in SOAP messages conforms to the appropriate XML schema, or it fails to correctly handle the complete range of data allowed by the schema.

Consequences

What a successful attack can lead to
Impact	Affects	Note
Resource Consumption	Availability
Read Data	Confidentiality
Execute Unauthorized Commands	Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability

Weaknesses it exploits

CWE-707 Improper Neutralization

Recent CVEs with these weaknesses

2.1CVE-2026-1245792026-11-09
A vulnerability was determined in aaPanel BillionMail up to 4.9. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the file core/api/relay/v1/relay.go of the component Relay Configuration API. Executing a manipulation of the argument…
8.8CVE-2026-765262026-10-21
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, Cisco has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in a software hardening release that addresses multiple internally discover…
9.9CVE-2026-763022026-10-21
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, Cisco has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in a software hardening release that addresses multiple internally discover…
9.8CVE-2026-762842026-10-07
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, Cisco has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in a software hardening release that addresses multiple internally discover…
9.8CVE-2026-764992026-10-07
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in…
8.8CVE-2026-764532026-10-07
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco NX-OS engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in a software hardening release that addresses m…
5.5CVE-2026-971822026-09-24
A security vulnerability has been detected in halo-dev Halo up to 2.25.4/2.26.1. Affected is an unknown function of the file application/src/main/java/run/halo/app/content/comment/ReplyNotificationSubscriptionHelper.java of the component S…
9.9CVE-2026-203302026-09-16
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco Secure Adaptive Security Appliance Software, Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Software engi…

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

Part of: CAPEC-278 Web Services Protocol Manipulation
Can lead to: CAPEC-110 SQL Injection through SOAP Parameter Tampering
CAPEC-228 DTD Injection

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