diff --git a/jollyday-jaxb/src/main/java/de/focus_shift/jollyday/jaxb/JaxbXMLMapper.java b/jollyday-jaxb/src/main/java/de/focus_shift/jollyday/jaxb/JaxbXMLMapper.java
index 38bb2a55d..068405c9c 100644
--- a/jollyday-jaxb/src/main/java/de/focus_shift/jollyday/jaxb/JaxbXMLMapper.java
+++ b/jollyday-jaxb/src/main/java/de/focus_shift/jollyday/jaxb/JaxbXMLMapper.java
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
+import javax.xml.stream.XMLInputFactory;
+import javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException;
+import javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamReader;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 
 public class JaxbXMLMapper {
@@ -25,6 +28,15 @@ public class JaxbXMLMapper {
 
   private static final JAXBContext jaxbContext = new JAXBContextCreator().create();
 
+  /**
+   * StAX factory hardened against XXE. DTD processing and external entity resolution are
+   * disabled, so a {@code <!DOCTYPE ...>} declaration (and any external or parameter entity it
+   * might carry) is rejected rather than resolved. The protection is configured explicitly here
+   * instead of relying on the defaults of whichever StAX/JAXB provider happens to be on the
+   * classpath, which could change if a consumer swaps or downgrades that provider.
+   */
+  private static final XMLInputFactory XML_INPUT_FACTORY = createHardenedXmlInputFactory();
+
   /**
    * Unmarshalls the configuration from the stream. Uses <code>JAXB</code> for
    * this.
@@ -38,14 +50,26 @@ public class JaxbXMLMapper {
     }
 
     try {
-      final Unmarshaller um = jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller();
-      @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") final JAXBElement<Configuration> jaxbElement = (JAXBElement<Configuration>) um.unmarshal(stream);
-      return jaxbElement.getValue();
-    } catch (JAXBException exception) {
+      final XMLStreamReader xmlStreamReader = XML_INPUT_FACTORY.createXMLStreamReader(stream);
+      try {
+        final Unmarshaller um = jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller();
+        final JAXBElement<Configuration> jaxbElement = um.unmarshal(xmlStreamReader, Configuration.class);
+        return jaxbElement.getValue();
+      } finally {
+        xmlStreamReader.close();
+      }
+    } catch (JAXBException | XMLStreamException exception) {
       throw new IllegalStateException("Cannot parse holidays XML file.", exception);
     }
   }
 
+  private static @NonNull XMLInputFactory createHardenedXmlInputFactory() {
+    final XMLInputFactory factory = XMLInputFactory.newFactory();
+    factory.setProperty(XMLInputFactory.SUPPORT_DTD, false);
+    factory.setProperty(XMLInputFactory.IS_SUPPORTING_EXTERNAL_ENTITIES, false);
+    return factory;
+  }
+
   private static class JAXBContextCreator {
     private JAXBContext create() {
       return createJAXBContext();
diff --git a/jollyday-jaxb/src/test/java/de/focus_shift/jollyday/jaxb/JaxbXMLMapperTest.java b/jollyday-jaxb/src/test/java/de/focus_shift/jollyday/jaxb/JaxbXMLMapperTest.java
index fafdf6c37..b8eaca8cd 100644
--- a/jollyday-jaxb/src/test/java/de/focus_shift/jollyday/jaxb/JaxbXMLMapperTest.java
+++ b/jollyday-jaxb/src/test/java/de/focus_shift/jollyday/jaxb/JaxbXMLMapperTest.java
@@ -5,7 +5,9 @@
 import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
 import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.ValueSource;
 
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatThrownBy;
@@ -19,6 +21,18 @@ void testUnmarshallConfigurationNullCheck() {
     assertThatThrownBy(() -> sut.unmarshallConfiguration(null)).isInstanceOf(IllegalArgumentException.class);
   }
 
+  @Test
+  void rejectsXmlWithDoctypeToPreventXxe() {
+    final String maliciousXml =
+      "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n"
+        + "<!DOCTYPE Configuration [<!ENTITY xxe SYSTEM \"file:///etc/passwd\">]>\n"
+        + "<Configuration hierarchy=\"test\" description=\"&xxe;\"></Configuration>";
+    final InputStream inputStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(maliciousXml.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+
+    assertThatThrownBy(() -> sut.unmarshallConfiguration(inputStream))
+      .isInstanceOf(IllegalStateException.class);
+  }
+
   @ParameterizedTest
   @ValueSource(strings = {"Holidays_at.xml", "Holidays_de.xml", "Holidays_gb.xml", "Holidays_ua.xml", "Holidays_tr.xml", "Holidays_za.xml"})
   void unmarshalRealResource(String holidayFileName) {