CVE-2026-46592
HighCVSS 7.5Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk19th percentile - higher than 19% of all known CVEs
Summary
A vulnerability in the Apache Camel CXF SOAP component allows an attacker to manipulate the operationName/operationNamespace headers to invoke an unintended WSDL operation on the backend. The lack of a Camel prefix in these headers prevents filtering at the HTTP boundary, allowing them to pass from an HTTP request into the Exchange. This enables a confused-deputy attack where a read operation can be replaced with a destructive one.
Risk Assessment
The risk is remote execution of unauthorized SOAP operations on the backend, potentially destructive, without authentication if the HTTP consumer is unauthenticated. This could lead to data integrity violations or system damage.
Recommendation
Upgrade Apache Camel to version 4.21.0 (or 4.14.8 for LTS 4.14.x, 4.18.3 for 4.18.x) immediately. If upgrade is not possible, strip the operationName and operationNamespace headers from untrusted requests before the cxf: producer and set the operation from a trusted source.
Original NVD description (English source)
Improper Input Validation, Unintended Proxy or Intermediary ('Confused Deputy') vulnerability in Apache Camel CXF SOAP component. The camel-cxf producer selects which SOAP operation to invoke on the backend service from the operationName (and operationNamespace) Exchange header, whose constant values (CxfConstants.OPERATION_NAME / OPERATION_NAMESPACE) were the plain strings operationName / operationNamespace. Because these names do not start with the Camel / camel prefix, HttpHeaderFilterStrategy - which blocks only the Camel header namespace on the HTTP boundary - let them pass from an inbound HTTP request straight into the Exchange. In a route that bridges an HTTP consumer (for example platform-http) into a cxf: producer, any HTTP client could therefore set the operationName header and have CxfProducer resolve and invoke a different WSDL operation than the route intended - for example replacing a read operation with a destructive one - against the backend SOAP service (a confused-deputy redirection). The constant is defined in the shared camel-cxf-common module, so the same non-prefixed names also applied to camel-cxfrs. No credentials are required when the bridging consumer is unauthenticated. This issue affects Apache Camel: from 4.0.0 before 4.14.8, from 4.15.0 before 4.18.3, from 4.19.0 before 4.21.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.21.0, which fixes the issue. If users are on the 4.14.x LTS releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.14.8. If users are on the 4.18.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.18.3. After upgrading, the operation-selection headers are named CamelCxfOperationName / CamelCxfOperationNamespace and are filtered at transport boundaries; see the 4.21 upgrade guide for the cross-transport carrier-header pattern. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, do not select the CXF operation from untrusted input: strip the operationName and operationNamespace headers from any untrusted ingress before the cxf: producer and set the operation from a trusted source in the route.