CVE-2026-42403
HighSummary
Apache Neethi does not properly detect circular references in policy definitions. Circular references in WS-Policy documents can lead to an infinite loop or excessive recursion, resulting in a stack overflow or application hang.
Risk Assessment
An attacker can craft malicious policy documents with circular references, leading to a Denial of Service condition. This can severely impact the availability of services within the organization.
Recommendation
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.2.2, which fixes this issue. Keeping software up to date is crucial for maintaining security.
Other vulnerabilities in Apache Neethi
See all- CVE-2026-42402High
Apache Neethi is vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack due to algorithmic complexity in policy normalization. Specially crafted WS-Policy documents can trigger an exponential Cartesian cross-product expansion during the normalization process, leading to unbounded memory allocation and JVM heap exhaustion.
- CVE-2026-66144High
Denial of service vulnerability in Apache Neethi when manually retrieving remote policy references via API. Retrieving a huge policy can cause resource exhaustion. Fixed in version 3.2.3 by imposing a default maximum data size.
- CVE-2026-66143High
Bypass of the maximum number of normalized policy alternatives in Apache Neethi 3.2.2 via crafted policies, potentially leading to DoS via resource consumption. Fixed in version 3.2.3.
- CVE-2026-66142High
Uncontrolled recursion vulnerability in Apache Neethi when parsing policies without IDs or with deeply nested structures, leading to DoS via memory exhaustion. Fixed in version 3.2.3.
Original NVD description (English source)
Apache Neethi does not properly detect circular references in policy definitions. When a WS-Policy document contains circular policy references (where Policy A references Policy B which references Policy A), the policy normalization process can enter an infinite loop or cause excessive recursion, leading to a stack overflow or application hang. An attacker can craft malicious policy documents with circular references to cause a Denial of Service condition Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.2.2, which fixes this issue.