diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/RegistryImporter.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/RegistryImporter.java
index 27a6534213..c74e56bce8 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/RegistryImporter.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/RegistryImporter.java
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ package org.dspace.administer;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
-import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;
@@ -18,6 +17,7 @@ import javax.xml.xpath.XPathConstants;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpressionException;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory;
 
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 import org.w3c.dom.Node;
 import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
@@ -49,8 +49,9 @@ public class RegistryImporter {
      */
     public static Document loadXML(String filename)
         throws IOException, ParserConfigurationException, SAXException {
-        DocumentBuilder builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
-                                                        .newDocumentBuilder();
+        // This XML builder will *not* disable external entities as XML
+        // registries are considered trusted content
+        DocumentBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getTrustedDocumentBuilder();
 
         Document document = builder.parse(new File(filename));
 
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/RegistryLoader.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/RegistryLoader.java
index d503bfc00b..8bb72e1852 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/RegistryLoader.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/RegistryLoader.java
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ import java.sql.SQLException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
-import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;
@@ -29,6 +28,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.cli.Options;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.ParseException;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.BitstreamFormat;
 import org.dspace.content.factory.ContentServiceFactory;
@@ -266,8 +266,9 @@ public class RegistryLoader {
      */
     private static Document loadXML(String filename) throws IOException,
         ParserConfigurationException, SAXException {
-        DocumentBuilder builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
-                                                        .newDocumentBuilder();
+        // This XML builder will *not* disable external entities as XML
+        // registries are considered trusted content
+        DocumentBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getTrustedDocumentBuilder();
 
         return builder.parse(new File(filename));
     }
@@ -351,4 +352,4 @@ public class RegistryLoader {
 
         return data;
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/StructBuilder.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/StructBuilder.java
index 8bbcfe0ff7..f2577a37b1 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/StructBuilder.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/administer/StructBuilder.java
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@ import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
-import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;
@@ -43,6 +42,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.cli.Option;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.Options;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.ParseException;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.Collection;
 import org.dspace.content.Community;
@@ -613,8 +613,8 @@ public class StructBuilder {
      */
     private static org.w3c.dom.Document loadXML(InputStream input)
         throws IOException, ParserConfigurationException, SAXException {
-        DocumentBuilder builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
-                                                        .newDocumentBuilder();
+        // This builder factory does not disable external DTD, entities, etc.
+        DocumentBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getTrustedDocumentBuilder();
 
         org.w3c.dom.Document document = builder.parse(input);
 
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemimport/ItemImportServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemimport/ItemImportServiceImpl.java
index 5b862a6e04..614393bd0a 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemimport/ItemImportServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemimport/ItemImportServiceImpl.java
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@ import java.util.UUID;
 import java.util.zip.ZipEntry;
 import java.util.zip.ZipFile;
 import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
-import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;
@@ -68,6 +67,7 @@ import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.dspace.app.itemimport.service.ItemImportService;
 import org.dspace.app.util.LocalSchemaFilenameFilter;
 import org.dspace.app.util.RelationshipUtils;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.authorize.ResourcePolicy;
 import org.dspace.authorize.service.AuthorizeService;
@@ -180,6 +180,8 @@ public class ItemImportServiceImpl implements ItemImportService, InitializingBea
     @Autowired(required = true)
     protected MetadataValueService metadataValueService;
 
+    protected DocumentBuilder builder;
+
     protected String tempWorkDir;
 
     protected boolean isTest = false;
@@ -1889,9 +1891,7 @@ public class ItemImportServiceImpl implements ItemImportService, InitializingBea
      */
     protected Document loadXML(String filename) throws IOException,
         ParserConfigurationException, SAXException {
-        DocumentBuilder builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
-                                                        .newDocumentBuilder();
-
+        DocumentBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilder();
         return builder.parse(new File(filename));
     }
 
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemupdate/ItemArchive.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemupdate/ItemArchive.java
index a3dead0574..efff52df89 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemupdate/ItemArchive.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemupdate/ItemArchive.java
@@ -23,8 +23,6 @@ import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.UUID;
-import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
-import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerConfigurationException;
@@ -33,6 +31,7 @@ import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
 
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.dspace.app.util.LocalSchemaFilenameFilter;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.DSpaceObject;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
@@ -52,7 +51,6 @@ public class ItemArchive {
 
     public static final String DUBLIN_CORE_XML = "dublin_core.xml";
 
-    protected static DocumentBuilder builder = null;
     protected Transformer transformer = null;
 
     protected List<DtoMetadata> dtomList = null;
@@ -95,14 +93,14 @@ public class ItemArchive {
         InputStream is = null;
         try {
             is = new FileInputStream(new File(dir, DUBLIN_CORE_XML));
-            itarch.dtomList = MetadataUtilities.loadDublinCore(getDocumentBuilder(), is);
+            itarch.dtomList = MetadataUtilities.loadDublinCore(XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilder(), is);
 
             //The code to search for local schema files was copied from org.dspace.app.itemimport
             // .ItemImportServiceImpl.java
             File file[] = dir.listFiles(new LocalSchemaFilenameFilter());
             for (int i = 0; i < file.length; i++) {
                 is = new FileInputStream(file[i]);
-                itarch.dtomList.addAll(MetadataUtilities.loadDublinCore(getDocumentBuilder(), is));
+                itarch.dtomList.addAll(MetadataUtilities.loadDublinCore(XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilder(), is));
             }
         } finally {
             if (is != null) {
@@ -126,14 +124,6 @@ public class ItemArchive {
         return itarch;
     }
 
-    protected static DocumentBuilder getDocumentBuilder()
-        throws ParserConfigurationException {
-        if (builder == null) {
-            builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
-        }
-        return builder;
-    }
-
     /**
      * Getter for Transformer
      *
@@ -318,7 +308,7 @@ public class ItemArchive {
 
         try {
             out = new FileOutputStream(new File(dir, "dublin_core.xml"));
-            Document doc = MetadataUtilities.writeDublinCore(getDocumentBuilder(), undoDtomList);
+            Document doc = MetadataUtilities.writeDublinCore(XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilder(), undoDtomList);
             MetadataUtilities.writeDocument(doc, getTransformer(), out);
 
             // if undo has delete bitstream
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/launcher/ScriptLauncher.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/launcher/ScriptLauncher.java
index 89a416bfa8..ab8807c2ca 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/launcher/ScriptLauncher.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/launcher/ScriptLauncher.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import java.util.TreeMap;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.ParseException;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.core.Context;
 import org.dspace.scripts.DSpaceRunnable;
 import org.dspace.scripts.DSpaceRunnable.StepResult;
@@ -314,7 +315,7 @@ public class ScriptLauncher {
         String config = kernelImpl.getConfigurationService().getProperty("dspace.dir") +
             System.getProperty("file.separator") + "config" +
             System.getProperty("file.separator") + "launcher.xml";
-        SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
+        SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
         Document doc = null;
         try {
             doc = saxBuilder.build(config);
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/sfx/SFXFileReaderServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/sfx/SFXFileReaderServiceImpl.java
index 184f00a53e..d3b447374a 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/sfx/SFXFileReaderServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/sfx/SFXFileReaderServiceImpl.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.dspace.app.sfx.service.SFXFileReaderService;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.content.DCPersonName;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
 import org.dspace.content.MetadataValue;
@@ -79,9 +80,9 @@ public class SFXFileReaderServiceImpl implements SFXFileReaderService {
         log.info("Parsing XML file... " + fileName);
         DocumentBuilder docBuilder;
         Document doc = null;
-        DocumentBuilderFactory docBuilderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
-        docBuilderFactory.setIgnoringElementContentWhitespace(true);
         try {
+            DocumentBuilderFactory docBuilderFactory = XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilderFactory();
+            docBuilderFactory.setIgnoringElementContentWhitespace(true);
             docBuilder = docBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
         } catch (ParserConfigurationException e) {
             log.error("Wrong parser configuration: " + e.getMessage());
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/DCInputsReader.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/DCInputsReader.java
index c77c3bf10e..d2f3ac0dc5 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/DCInputsReader.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/DCInputsReader.java
@@ -121,7 +121,11 @@ public class DCInputsReader {
         String uri = "file:" + new File(fileName).getAbsolutePath();
 
         try {
-            DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+            // This document builder factory will *not* disable external
+            // entities as they can be useful in managing large forms, but
+            // it is up to site administrators to validate the XML they are
+            // storing
+            DocumentBuilderFactory factory = XMLUtils.getTrustedDocumentBuilderFactory();
             factory.setValidating(false);
             factory.setIgnoringComments(true);
             factory.setIgnoringElementContentWhitespace(true);
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/InitializeEntities.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/InitializeEntities.java
index e53d29ecfb..acc360bbc3 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/InitializeEntities.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/InitializeEntities.java
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.sql.SQLException;
 import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
-import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 
 import org.apache.commons.cli.CommandLine;
@@ -139,8 +138,9 @@ public class InitializeEntities {
     private void parseXMLToRelations(Context context, String fileLocation) throws AuthorizeException {
         try {
             File fXmlFile = new File(fileLocation);
-            DocumentBuilderFactory dbFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
-            DocumentBuilder dBuilder = dbFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
+            // This XML builder will allow external entities, so the relationship types XML should
+            // be considered trusted by administrators
+            DocumentBuilder dBuilder = XMLUtils.getTrustedDocumentBuilder();
             Document doc = dBuilder.parse(fXmlFile);
 
             doc.getDocumentElement().normalize();
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/SubmissionConfigReader.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/SubmissionConfigReader.java
index 0f8f745680..980f028545 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/SubmissionConfigReader.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/SubmissionConfigReader.java
@@ -170,8 +170,11 @@ public class SubmissionConfigReader {
         String uri = "file:" + new File(fileName).getAbsolutePath();
 
         try {
-            DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory
-                .newInstance();
+            // This document builder factory will *not* disable external
+            // entities as they can be useful in managing large forms, but
+            // it is up to site administrators to validate the XML they are
+            // storing
+            DocumentBuilderFactory factory = XMLUtils.getTrustedDocumentBuilderFactory();
             factory.setValidating(false);
             factory.setIgnoringComments(true);
             factory.setIgnoringElementContentWhitespace(true);
@@ -732,4 +735,4 @@ public class SubmissionConfigReader {
         }
         return results;
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/XMLUtils.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/XMLUtils.java
index c39d0d26fd..389d53fe6d 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/XMLUtils.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/util/XMLUtils.java
@@ -9,8 +9,13 @@ package org.dspace.app.util;
 
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
+import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
+import javax.xml.stream.XMLInputFactory;
 
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+import org.jdom2.input.SAXBuilder;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
 
@@ -161,4 +166,122 @@ public class XMLUtils {
         }
         return result;
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Initialize and return a javax DocumentBuilderFactory with NO security
+     * applied. This is intended only for internal, administrative/configuration
+     * use where external entities and other dangerous features are actually
+     * purposefully included.
+     * The method here is tiny, but may be expanded with other features like
+     * whitespace handling, and calling this method name helps to document
+     * the fact that the caller knows it is trusting the XML source / factory.
+     *
+     * @return document builder factory to generate new builders
+     * @throws ParserConfigurationException
+     */
+    public static DocumentBuilderFactory getTrustedDocumentBuilderFactory()
+            throws ParserConfigurationException {
+        DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+        return factory;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Initialize and return the javax DocumentBuilderFactory with some basic security
+     * applied to avoid XXE attacks and other unwanted content inclusion
+     * @return document builder factory to generate new builders
+     * @throws ParserConfigurationException
+     */
+    public static DocumentBuilderFactory getDocumentBuilderFactory()
+            throws ParserConfigurationException {
+        DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+        // No DOCTYPE / DTDs
+        factory.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl", true);
+        // No external general entities
+        factory.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-general-entities", false);
+        // No external parameter entities
+        factory.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-parameter-entities", false);
+        // No external DTDs
+        factory.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/nonvalidating/load-external-dtd", false);
+        // Even if entities somehow get defined, they will not be expanded
+        factory.setExpandEntityReferences(false);
+        // Disable "XInclude" markup processing
+        factory.setXIncludeAware(false);
+
+        return factory;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Initialize and return a javax DocumentBuilder with NO security
+     * applied. This is intended only for internal, administrative/configuration
+     * use where external entities and other dangerous features are actually
+     * purposefully included.
+     * The method here is tiny, but may be expanded with other features like
+     * whitespace handling, and calling this method name helps to document
+     * the fact that the caller knows it is trusting the XML source / builder
+     *
+     * @return document builder with no security features set
+     * @throws ParserConfigurationException
+     */
+    public static DocumentBuilder getTrustedDocumentBuilder()
+            throws ParserConfigurationException {
+        return getTrustedDocumentBuilderFactory().newDocumentBuilder();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Initialize and return the javax DocumentBuilder with some basic security applied
+     * to avoid XXE attacks and other unwanted content inclusion
+     * @return document builder for use in XML parsing
+     * @throws ParserConfigurationException
+     */
+    public static DocumentBuilder getDocumentBuilder()
+            throws ParserConfigurationException {
+        return getDocumentBuilderFactory().newDocumentBuilder();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Initialize and return the SAX document builder with some basic security applied
+     * to avoid XXE attacks and other unwanted content inclusion
+     * @return SAX document builder for use in XML parsing
+     */
+    public static SAXBuilder getSAXBuilder() {
+        return getSAXBuilder(false);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Initialize and return the SAX document builder with some basic security applied
+     * to avoid XXE attacks and other unwanted content inclusion
+     * @param validate whether to use JDOM XSD validation
+     * @return SAX document builder for use in XML parsing
+     */
+    public static SAXBuilder getSAXBuilder(boolean validate) {
+        SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
+        if (validate) {
+            saxBuilder.setValidation(true);
+        }
+        // No DOCTYPE / DTDs
+        saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl", true);
+        // No external general entities
+        saxBuilder.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-general-entities", false);
+        // No external parameter entities
+        saxBuilder.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-parameter-entities", false);
+        // No external DTDs
+        saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/nonvalidating/load-external-dtd", false);
+        // Don't expand entities
+        saxBuilder.setExpandEntities(false);
+
+        return saxBuilder;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Initialize and return the Java XML Input Factory with some basic security applied
+     * to avoid XXE attacks and other unwanted content inclusion
+     * @return XML input factory for use in XML parsing
+     */
+    public static XMLInputFactory getXMLInputFactory() {
+        XMLInputFactory xmlInputFactory = XMLInputFactory.newFactory();
+        xmlInputFactory.setProperty(XMLInputFactory.SUPPORT_DTD, false);
+
+        return xmlInputFactory;
+    }
+
 }
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/METSDisseminationCrosswalk.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/METSDisseminationCrosswalk.java
index b8a4a8aef3..5ceacc933e 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/METSDisseminationCrosswalk.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/METSDisseminationCrosswalk.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.ArrayUtils;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.DSpaceObject;
 import org.dspace.content.packager.PackageDisseminator;
@@ -129,7 +130,7 @@ public class METSDisseminationCrosswalk
 
             try {
                 //Return just the root Element of the METS file
-                SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
+                SAXBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
                 Document metsDocument = builder.build(tempFile);
                 return metsDocument.getRootElement();
             } catch (JDOMException je) {
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/MODSDisseminationCrosswalk.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/MODSDisseminationCrosswalk.java
index 6315f73a7c..3b12c5a63c 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/MODSDisseminationCrosswalk.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/MODSDisseminationCrosswalk.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import java.util.Properties;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.ArrayUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.Collection;
 import org.dspace.content.Community;
@@ -144,7 +145,7 @@ public class MODSDisseminationCrosswalk extends SelfNamedPlugin
         MODS_NS.getURI() + " " + MODS_XSD;
 
     private static final XMLOutputter outputUgly = new XMLOutputter();
-    private static final SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
+    private static final SAXBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
 
     private Map<String, modsTriple> modsMap = null;
 
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/QDCCrosswalk.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/QDCCrosswalk.java
index fa582fd62f..43b8820976 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/QDCCrosswalk.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/QDCCrosswalk.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import java.util.Properties;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.ArrayUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.DSpaceObject;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
@@ -125,7 +126,7 @@ public class QDCCrosswalk extends SelfNamedPlugin
     // XML schemaLocation fragment for this crosswalk, from config.
     private String schemaLocation = null;
 
-    private static final SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
+    private static final SAXBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
 
     protected ItemService itemService = ContentServiceFactory.getInstance().getItemService();
 
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/RoleCrosswalk.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/RoleCrosswalk.java
index 2c763036ce..8d5bf49902 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/RoleCrosswalk.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/RoleCrosswalk.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import java.io.IOException;
 import java.sql.SQLException;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.DSpaceObject;
 import org.dspace.content.packager.PackageDisseminator;
@@ -208,7 +209,7 @@ public class RoleCrosswalk
 
             try {
                 //Try to parse our XML results (which were disseminated by the Packager)
-                SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
+                SAXBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
                 Document xmlDocument = builder.build(tempFile);
                 //If XML parsed successfully, return root element of doc
                 if (xmlDocument != null && xmlDocument.hasRootElement()) {
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/XSLTIngestionCrosswalk.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/XSLTIngestionCrosswalk.java
index 63ef5f7336..b07b2b2228 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/XSLTIngestionCrosswalk.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/crosswalk/XSLTIngestionCrosswalk.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
 
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.ArrayUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.Collection;
 import org.dspace.content.Community;
@@ -297,7 +298,7 @@ public class XSLTIngestionCrosswalk
                 "Failed to initialize transformer, probably error loading stylesheet.");
         }
 
-        SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
+        SAXBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
         Document inDoc = builder.build(new FileInputStream(argv[i + 1]));
         XMLOutputter outputter = new XMLOutputter(Format.getPrettyFormat());
         List dimList;
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/packager/METSManifest.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/packager/METSManifest.java
index 3399bdf0f0..a1ed3c1243 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/packager/METSManifest.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/packager/METSManifest.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import java.util.List;
 import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.Bitstream;
 import org.dspace.content.Bundle;
@@ -265,12 +266,13 @@ public class METSManifest {
     public static METSManifest create(InputStream is, boolean validate, String configName)
         throws IOException,
         MetadataValidationException {
-        SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder(validate);
 
+        SAXBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
         builder.setIgnoringElementContentWhitespace(true);
 
         // Set validation feature
         if (validate) {
+            builder.setValidation(true);
             builder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/validation/schema", true);
 
             // Tell the parser where local copies of schemas are, to speed up
@@ -278,10 +280,6 @@ public class METSManifest {
             if (localSchemas.length() > 0) {
                 builder.setProperty("http://apache.org/xml/properties/schema/external-schemaLocation", localSchemas);
             }
-        } else {
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur.
-            // See https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/XML_External_Entity_Prevention_Cheat_Sheet.html
-            builder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl", true);
         }
 
         // Parse the METS file
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/packager/RoleIngester.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/packager/RoleIngester.java
index ca27abe206..a0ac43282c 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/packager/RoleIngester.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/packager/RoleIngester.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import org.apache.commons.codec.DecoderException;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.Collection;
 import org.dspace.content.Community;
@@ -385,7 +386,7 @@ public class RoleIngester implements PackageIngester {
         Document document;
 
         try {
-            DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+            DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilderFactory();
             dbf.setIgnoringComments(true);
             dbf.setCoalescing(true);
             DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder();
@@ -419,7 +420,7 @@ public class RoleIngester implements PackageIngester {
         Document document;
 
         try {
-            DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+            DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilderFactory();
             dbf.setIgnoringComments(true);
             dbf.setCoalescing(true);
             DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder();
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/ctask/general/MetadataWebService.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/ctask/general/MetadataWebService.java
index fc62d7a4b2..1b618ad31f 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/ctask/general/MetadataWebService.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/ctask/general/MetadataWebService.java
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.dspace.app.client.DSpaceHttpClientFactory;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.DSpaceObject;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
@@ -176,7 +177,7 @@ public class MetadataWebService extends AbstractCurationTask implements Namespac
         fieldSeparator = (fldSep != null) ? fldSep : " ";
         urlTemplate = taskProperty("template");
         templateParam = urlTemplate.substring(urlTemplate.indexOf("{") + 1,
-                                              urlTemplate.indexOf("}"));
+                urlTemplate.indexOf("}"));
         String[] parsed = parseTransform(templateParam);
         lookupField = parsed[0];
         lookupTransform = parsed[1];
@@ -204,13 +205,9 @@ public class MetadataWebService extends AbstractCurationTask implements Namespac
             }
         }
         // initialize response document parser
-        DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
-        factory.setNamespaceAware(true);
         try {
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            // See https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/XML_External_Entity_Prevention_Cheat_Sheet.html
-            factory.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl", true);
-            factory.setXIncludeAware(false);
+            DocumentBuilderFactory factory = XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilderFactory();
+            factory.setNamespaceAware(true);
             docBuilder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
         } catch (ParserConfigurationException pcE) {
             log.error("caught exception: " + pcE);
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/external/provider/orcid/xml/Converter.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/external/provider/orcid/xml/Converter.java
index 578db6c567..ab641c0004 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/external/provider/orcid/xml/Converter.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/external/provider/orcid/xml/Converter.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamReader;
 import jakarta.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
 import jakarta.xml.bind.JAXBException;
 import jakarta.xml.bind.Unmarshaller;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
 
 /**
@@ -31,9 +32,7 @@ public abstract class Converter<T> {
 
     protected Object unmarshall(InputStream input, Class<?> type) throws SAXException, URISyntaxException {
         try {
-            XMLInputFactory xmlInputFactory = XMLInputFactory.newFactory();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            xmlInputFactory.setProperty(XMLInputFactory.SUPPORT_DTD, false);
+            XMLInputFactory xmlInputFactory = XMLUtils.getXMLInputFactory();
             XMLStreamReader xmlStreamReader = xmlInputFactory.createXMLStreamReader(input);
 
             JAXBContext context = JAXBContext.newInstance(type);
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/identifier/doi/DataCiteConnector.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/identifier/doi/DataCiteConnector.java
index 368662026a..580fe5ab2f 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/identifier/doi/DataCiteConnector.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/identifier/doi/DataCiteConnector.java
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.dspace.app.client.DSpaceHttpClientFactory;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.content.DSpaceObject;
 import org.dspace.content.crosswalk.CrosswalkException;
@@ -829,7 +830,7 @@ public class DataCiteConnector
         }
 
         // parse the XML
-        SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
+        SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
         Document doc = null;
         try {
             doc = saxBuilder.build(new ByteArrayInputStream(content.getBytes("UTF-8")));
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/arxiv/service/ArXivImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/arxiv/service/ArXivImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
index 660e0c9754..a790c6a9a5 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/arxiv/service/ArXivImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/arxiv/service/ArXivImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import jakarta.ws.rs.client.WebTarget;
 import jakarta.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
 import jakarta.ws.rs.core.Response;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.ImportRecord;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.Query;
@@ -218,7 +219,7 @@ public class ArXivImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadata
             if (response.getStatus() == 200) {
                 String responseString = response.readEntity(String.class);
 
-                SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
+                SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
                 Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(responseString));
                 Element root = document.getRootElement();
 
@@ -399,7 +400,7 @@ public class ArXivImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadata
     private List<Element> splitToRecords(String recordsSrc) {
 
         try {
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(recordsSrc));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
 
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/cinii/CiniiImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/cinii/CiniiImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
index 82a4b2d779..41c80ab7fe 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/cinii/CiniiImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/cinii/CiniiImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import org.apache.http.HttpException;
 import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.ImportRecord;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.Query;
@@ -301,9 +302,7 @@ public class CiniiImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadata
 
     private List<Element> splitToRecords(String recordsSrc) {
         try {
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(recordsSrc));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
             return root.getChildren();
@@ -356,9 +355,7 @@ public class CiniiImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadata
             Map<String, Map<String, String>> params = new HashMap<String, Map<String,String>>();
             String response = liveImportClient.executeHttpGetRequest(1000, uriBuilder.toString(), params);
             int url_len = this.url.length() - 1;
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(response));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
             List<Namespace> namespaces = Arrays.asList(
@@ -420,9 +417,7 @@ public class CiniiImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadata
             Map<String, Map<String, String>> params = new HashMap<String, Map<String,String>>();
             String response = liveImportClient.executeHttpGetRequest(1000, uriBuilder.toString(), params);
 
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(response));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
             List<Namespace> namespaces = Arrays
@@ -449,4 +444,4 @@ public class CiniiImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadata
         return metadatumDTO;
     }
 
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/crossref/CrossRefAbstractProcessor.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/crossref/CrossRefAbstractProcessor.java
index 1b6da9d37b..99f1ee37a5 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/crossref/CrossRefAbstractProcessor.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/crossref/CrossRefAbstractProcessor.java
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
-import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
@@ -21,6 +20,7 @@ import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.metadatamapping.contributor.JsonPathMetadataProcessor;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 import org.w3c.dom.Node;
@@ -64,10 +64,9 @@ public class CrossRefAbstractProcessor implements JsonPathMetadataProcessor {
         }
 
         String xmlString = "<root>" + abstractValue + "</root>";
-        DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
         Document xmlDoc;
         try {
-            DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
+            DocumentBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilder();
             InputSource is = new InputSource(new StringReader(xmlString));
             xmlDoc = builder.parse(is);
         } catch (SAXException | IOException | ParserConfigurationException e) {
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/epo/service/EpoImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/epo/service/EpoImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
index 70f726c5f9..d140eb2a33 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/epo/service/EpoImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/epo/service/EpoImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.apache.xerces.impl.dv.util.Base64;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.ImportRecord;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.Query;
@@ -397,9 +398,7 @@ public class EpoImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadataSo
 
             String response = liveImportClient.executeHttpGetRequest(1000, uriBuilder.toString(), params);
 
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(response));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
 
@@ -436,9 +435,7 @@ public class EpoImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadataSo
 
             String response = liveImportClient.executeHttpGetRequest(1000, uriBuilder.toString(), params);
 
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(response));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
 
@@ -489,9 +486,7 @@ public class EpoImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadataSo
 
     private List<Element> splitToRecords(String recordsSrc) {
         try {
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(recordsSrc));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
             List<Namespace> namespaces = Arrays.asList(Namespace.getNamespace("ns", "http://www.epo.org/exchange"));
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/openaire/service/OpenAireImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/openaire/service/OpenAireImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
index 7fb5f27354..ea5b7a6761 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/openaire/service/OpenAireImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/openaire/service/OpenAireImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import jakarta.ws.rs.client.ClientBuilder;
 import jakarta.ws.rs.client.Invocation;
 import jakarta.ws.rs.client.WebTarget;
 import jakarta.ws.rs.core.Response;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.ImportRecord;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.Query;
@@ -248,7 +249,7 @@ public class OpenAireImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetad
             if (response.getStatus() == 200) {
                 String responseString = response.readEntity(String.class);
 
-                SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
+                SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
                 Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(responseString));
                 Element root = document.getRootElement();
 
@@ -330,7 +331,7 @@ public class OpenAireImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetad
     private List<Element> splitToRecords(String recordsSrc) {
 
         try {
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(recordsSrc));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
 
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/pubmed/service/PubmedImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/pubmed/service/PubmedImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
index 1523c2c6bc..daf0d2131e 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/pubmed/service/PubmedImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/pubmed/service/PubmedImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
 import com.google.common.io.CharStreams;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.ImportRecord;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.Query;
@@ -234,11 +235,13 @@ public class PubmedImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadat
         String value = null;
 
         try {
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // Disallow external entities & entity expansion to protect against XXE attacks
-            // (NOTE: We receive errors if we disable all DTDs for PubMed, so this is the best we can do)
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-general-entities", false);
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-parameter-entities", false);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
+            // To properly parse PubMed responses, we must allow DOCTYPE/DTDs overall but
+            // we can still take advantage of entities themselves being disabled, and not
+            // expanded.
+            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl", false);
+            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/nonvalidating/load-external-dtd",
+                    true);
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(src));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
 
@@ -355,12 +358,7 @@ public class PubmedImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadat
 
     private List<Element> splitToRecords(String recordsSrc) {
         try {
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // Disallow external entities & entity expansion to protect against XXE attacks
-            // (NOTE: We receive errors if we disable all DTDs for PubMed, so this is the best we can do)
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-general-entities", false);
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-parameter-entities", false);
-            saxBuilder.setExpandEntities(false);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(recordsSrc));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
 
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/pubmedeurope/PubmedEuropeMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/pubmedeurope/PubmedEuropeMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
index 7cd297eb28..24f40339dd 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/pubmedeurope/PubmedEuropeMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/pubmedeurope/PubmedEuropeMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import org.apache.http.client.ClientProtocolException;
 import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.ImportRecord;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.Query;
@@ -292,9 +293,7 @@ public class PubmedEuropeMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadat
             Map<String, Map<String, String>> params = new HashMap<String, Map<String,String>>();
             String response = liveImportClient.executeHttpGetRequest(1000, buildURI(1, query), params);
 
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(response));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
             Element element = root.getChild("hitCount");
@@ -365,9 +364,7 @@ public class PubmedEuropeMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadat
                 String response = liveImportClient.executeHttpGetRequest(1000, uriBuilder.toString(), params);
                 String cursorMark = StringUtils.EMPTY;
                 if (StringUtils.isNotBlank(response)) {
-                    SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-                    // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-                    saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+                    SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
                     Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(response));
                     XPathFactory xpfac = XPathFactory.instance();
                     XPathExpression<Element> xPath = xpfac.compile("//responseWrapper/resultList/result",
@@ -419,4 +416,4 @@ public class PubmedEuropeMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadat
         this.url = url;
     }
 
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/scopus/service/ScopusImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/scopus/service/ScopusImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
index a3f74694be..22e3534ca8 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/scopus/service/ScopusImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/scopus/service/ScopusImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.ImportRecord;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.Query;
@@ -208,9 +209,7 @@ public class ScopusImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadat
                     return 0;
                 }
 
-                SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-                // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-                saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+                SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
                 Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(response));
                 Element root = document.getRootElement();
 
@@ -397,9 +396,7 @@ public class ScopusImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadat
 
     private List<Element> splitToRecords(String recordsSrc) {
         try {
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(recordsSrc));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
             String totalResults = root.getChildText("totalResults", Namespace.getNamespace("http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"));
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/wos/service/WOSImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/wos/service/WOSImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
index 9bffa2a84a..2ac63d5051 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/wos/service/WOSImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/wos/service/WOSImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.collections.CollectionUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.content.Item;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.ImportRecord;
 import org.dspace.importer.external.datamodel.Query;
@@ -145,9 +146,7 @@ public class WOSImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadataSo
                 params.put(HEADER_PARAMETERS, getRequestParameters());
                 String response = liveImportClient.executeHttpGetRequest(timeout, url, params);
 
-                SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-                // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-                saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+                SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
                 Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(response));
                 Element root = document.getRootElement();
                 XPathExpression<Element> xpath = XPathFactory.instance().compile("//*[@name=\"RecordsFound\"]",
@@ -288,9 +287,7 @@ public class WOSImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadataSo
 
     private List<Element> splitToRecords(String recordsSrc) {
         try {
-            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
-            // disallow DTD parsing to ensure no XXE attacks can occur
-            saxBuilder.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl",true);
+            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
             Document document = saxBuilder.build(new StringReader(recordsSrc));
             Element root = document.getRootElement();
             String cData = XPathFactory.instance().compile("//*[@name=\"Records\"]",
@@ -332,4 +329,4 @@ public class WOSImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl extends AbstractImportMetadataSo
         this.apiKey = apiKey;
     }
 
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/license/CCLicenseConnectorServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/license/CCLicenseConnectorServiceImpl.java
index 1d777a2e13..3c9088bda5 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/license/CCLicenseConnectorServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/license/CCLicenseConnectorServiceImpl.java
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
 import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.dspace.app.client.DSpaceHttpClientFactory;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.services.ConfigurationService;
 import org.jdom2.Attribute;
 import org.jdom2.Document;
@@ -50,7 +51,7 @@ public class CCLicenseConnectorServiceImpl implements CCLicenseConnectorService,
     private Logger log = org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager.getLogger(CCLicenseConnectorServiceImpl.class);
 
     private CloseableHttpClient client;
-    protected SAXBuilder parser = new SAXBuilder();
+    protected SAXBuilder parser = XMLUtils.getSAXBuilder();
 
     private String postArgument = "answers";
     private String postAnswerFormat =
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/orcid/client/OrcidClientImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/orcid/client/OrcidClientImpl.java
index c872f5c6ff..aa80657780 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/orcid/client/OrcidClientImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/orcid/client/OrcidClientImpl.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
 import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
 import org.apache.http.message.BasicNameValuePair;
 import org.dspace.app.client.DSpaceHttpClientFactory;
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.orcid.OrcidToken;
 import org.dspace.orcid.exception.OrcidClientException;
 import org.dspace.orcid.model.OrcidEntityType;
@@ -351,8 +352,7 @@ public class OrcidClientImpl implements OrcidClient {
     @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
     private <T> T unmarshall(HttpEntity entity, Class<T> clazz) throws Exception {
         JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(clazz);
-        XMLInputFactory xmlInputFactory = XMLInputFactory.newFactory();
-        xmlInputFactory.setProperty(XMLInputFactory.SUPPORT_DTD, false);
+        XMLInputFactory xmlInputFactory = XMLUtils.getXMLInputFactory();
         XMLStreamReader xmlStreamReader = xmlInputFactory.createXMLStreamReader(entity.getContent());
         Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller();
         return (T) unmarshaller.unmarshal(xmlStreamReader);
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/vocabulary/ControlledVocabulary.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/vocabulary/ControlledVocabulary.java
index 7f2bdc6ef7..bd19a1254f 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/vocabulary/ControlledVocabulary.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/vocabulary/ControlledVocabulary.java
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
-import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;
@@ -20,6 +19,7 @@ import javax.xml.xpath.XPathConstants;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpressionException;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory;
 
+import org.dspace.app.util.XMLUtils;
 import org.dspace.services.ConfigurationService;
 import org.dspace.services.factory.DSpaceServicesFactory;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ public class ControlledVocabulary {
 
         File controlledVocFile = new File(filePath.toString());
         if (controlledVocFile.exists()) {
-            DocumentBuilder builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
+            DocumentBuilder builder = XMLUtils.getDocumentBuilder();
             Document document = builder.parse(controlledVocFile);
             XPath xPath = XPathFactory.newInstance().newXPath();
             Node node = (Node) xPath.compile("node").evaluate(document, XPathConstants.NODE);