Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference

Summary

This vulnerability in Apache Solr up to 6.6.3 and 7.x up to 7.3.0 relates to an XML external entity expansion (XXE) in Solr config files (solrconfig.xml, schema.xml, managed-schema). In addition, Xinclude functionality provided in these config files is also affected in a similar way. The vulnerability can be used as XXE using file/ftp/http protocols in order to read arbitrary local files from the Solr server or the internal network. Users are advised to upgrade to either Solr 6.6.4 or Solr 7.3.1 releases both of which address the vulnerability. Once upgrade is complete, no other steps are required. Those releases only allow external entities and Xincludes that refer to local files / zookeeper resources below the Solr instance directory (using Solr's ResourceLoader); usage of absolute URLs is denied. Keep in mind, that external entities and XInclude are explicitly supported to better structure config files in large installations. Before Solr 6 this was no problem, as config files were not accessible through the APIs.