# XML Complexity

## Contents
Overview Configuration

## Overview
Parsing XML documents is a notoriously processor-intensive activity. This can be exploited by hackers by sending large and complex XML messages to Web Services in a type of denial-of-service attack attempting to overload them. The XML Complexity filter can protect against such attacks by performing the following checks on an incoming XML message: Checking the total number of nodes contained in the XML message. Ensuring that the message does not contain deeply nested levels of XML nodes. Making sure that elements in the XML message can only contain a specified maximum number of child elements. Making sure that each element can have a maximum number of attributes. By performing these checks, the Enterprise Gateway can protect back-end Web Services from having to process large and potentially complex XML messages. You can also use the XML Complexity filter on the Web Service response to prevent a dictionary attack. For example, if the Web Service is a phone book service, a `name=*` parameter could return all entries.
## Configuration
The XML Complexity filter should be configured as the first filter in the policy that processes the XML body. This enables this filter to block any excessively large or complex XML message before any other filters attempt to process the XML. To configure the XML Complexity filter, complete the following fields: Name: Enter an appropriate name for this filter. Maximum Total Number of Nodes: Specify the maximum number of nodes that you want to allow in an XML message. Note that this number does not include text nodes or comments. You can use the Message Size filter to stop large text nodes or comments. Maximum Number of Levels of Descendant Nodes: Enter the maximum number of descendant nodes that an element is allowed to have. Again, this number does not include text nodes or comments. Maximum Number of Child Nodes per Node: Enter the maximum number of child nodes that an element in an XML message is allowed to have. Maximum Number of Attributes per Node: Enter the maximum number of attributes that an element is allowed to have.