XML Escape/Unescape Tool
Convert XML special characters to entities and back with advanced options and security validation
Input XML
Paste your XML content here, load from file, or use a sample
Actions
Choose an operation to perform on your XML
XML Options
Customize how XML characters are processed
Output
Escaped/unescaped XML result from input
✨ Features
🔒 XML Escaping
Convert XML special characters to safe entities using the 5 predefined XML entities
🔓 XML Unescaping
Convert XML entities back to readable characters with validation
🛡️ CDATA Preservation
Intelligently handle CDATA sections without escaping their content
✅ Structure Validation
Validate XML structure and detect potential security issues
Why XML Escaping is Essential for Data Security and Integrity
Understanding XML entity encoding for preventing injection attacks and ensuring proper data interchange
XML escaping is crucial for secure data interchange and preventing XML injection attacks. Unlike HTML with its extensive entity catalog, XML defines only five predefined entities (<, >, &, ", '), making it more focused on structural integrity and security. Proper XML escaping ensures that special characters are correctly interpreted as text content rather than markup, preventing malicious XML injection and maintaining document well-formedness.
XML Injection Prevention
Properly escaped XML prevents malicious code injection through user input. Converting <malicious> tags to <malicious> ensures they display as text rather than being parsed as XML elements, protecting against XXE attacks and XML bomb attacks.
API Response Security
When APIs return XML data or when building SOAP responses, proper escaping ensures that user-generated content doesn't break XML structure or introduce security vulnerabilities. This is especially critical for web services and data interchange formats.
Configuration File Safety
XML configuration files (like web.config, application.xml, or Android manifests) require proper escaping to prevent parsing errors and security vulnerabilities. Special characters in configuration values must be escaped to maintain file integrity and system security.
Cross-Platform Data Exchange
XML serves as a universal data exchange format between different systems and platforms. Proper escaping ensures data integrity across various XML parsers and prevents interoperability issues when sharing data between systems with different security requirements.
CDATA Section Management
CDATA sections allow raw text that doesn't need escaping, but must be handled carefully. Understanding when to use CDATA versus entity escaping is crucial for maintaining both readability and security, especially when dealing with code snippets or structured text within XML documents.
Legacy System Integration
Many enterprise systems rely on XML for data exchange. Proper escaping ensures compatibility with older systems that may have strict XML parsing requirements, preventing integration failures and maintaining data consistency across different system versions and vendors.
Best Practices for XML Escaping
Always escape the ampersand (&) first to prevent double-escaping. Use context-aware escaping: different rules apply for element content versus attribute values. Preserve CDATA sections when they contain intentionally unescaped content. Implement XML schema validation in addition to entity escaping for comprehensive document validation. Consider using XML libraries that handle escaping automatically rather than manual string manipulation.