from xml.dom.minidom import parseString as badParseString from defusedxml.minidom import parseString as goodParseString a = badParseString("Some data some more data") print(a) b = goodParseString("Some data some more data") print(b) from xml.dom.minidom import parse as badParse from defusedxml.minidom import parse as goodParse a = badParse("somfilethatdoesntexist.xml") print(a) b = goodParse("somefilethatdoesntexist.xml") print(b)