CVE-2026-49098
MediumCVSS 5.3Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk31th percentile - higher than 31% of all known CVEs
Summary
A vulnerability in the Apache Camel Kafka component allows an attacker to override the target Kafka topic via the `kafka.OVERRIDE_TOPIC` header in an HTTP request. Due to improper input validation and neutralization of special elements, in routes bridging an HTTP consumer to a Kafka producer, any HTTP client can redirect messages to arbitrary Kafka topics, including sensitive internal ones. Affected versions: 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.
Risk Assessment
The organization is at risk of unauthorized message redirection to sensitive Kafka topics, potentially leading to data leakage, data manipulation, or attacks on critical downstream services. No authentication is required if the HTTP consumer is unauthenticated.
Recommendation
Upgrade Apache Camel to version 4.21.0 (or 4.14.8 for LTS 4.14.x, or 4.18.3 for 4.18.x) immediately. If an upgrade is not possible, strip `kafka.*` headers at the start of the route before the Kafka producer, e.g., using `removeHeaders('kafka.*')`.
Other vulnerabilities in Apache Camel
See all- CVE-2015-5348High
Apache Camel versions 2.6.x through 2.14.x, 2.15.x before 2.15.5, and 2.16.x before 2.16.1, when using camel-jetty or camel-servlet as consumers in Camel routes, allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a crafted serialized Java object in an HTTP request.
- CVE-2014-0002High
The XSLT component in Apache Camel before 2.11.4 and 2.12.x before 2.12.3 allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files and possibly have other unspecified impact via an XML document containing an external entity declaration in conjunction with an entity reference, related to an XML External Entity (XXE) issue.
- CVE-2026-71300Critical
Vulnerability in Apache Camel Atmosphere Websocket component due to improper input validation of Exchange headers outside the Camel namespace (websocket.connectionKey, websocket.connectionKey.list, websocket.sendToAll, websocket.eventType, websocket.errorType). An external attacker can supply the list header via HTTP and take over the producer's dispatch decision, potentially suppressing or redirecting notifications to a different client.
- CVE-2026-66906Critical
Relative path traversal vulnerability in Apache Camel Azure Storage Blob component allows writing files outside the configured directory during downloadBlobToFile operation. Blob names with parent-directory segments are not normalized, enabling overwriting arbitrary files with Camel process privileges.
- CVE-2026-56140Critical
The Apache Camel AWS SNS component lacks an inbound filter rule in the Sns2HeaderFilterStrategy. However, the vulnerability is not exploitable because the component is producer-only (does not support consumers), so an attacker cannot supply external message attributes to the Camel Exchange. A defense-in-depth filter was added for consistency with other strategies.
- CVE-2026-53913Critical
A vulnerability in the camel-keycloak component of Apache Camel allows bypassing access token verification in the default configuration. When required roles or permissions are empty, the token is not cryptographically verified, allowing access to protected routes with any Authorization header.
- CVE-2026-48205Critical
A vulnerability in the Apache Camel DNS component allows SSRF attacks via improper input validation of message headers. An attacker can set dns.server, dns.name, and dns.domain headers in an HTTP request, redirecting DNS queries to a controlled server and disclosing internal hostnames.
- CVE-2026-48204Critical
Vulnerability in Apache Camel's mongodb-gridfs component allows an attacker to manipulate GridFS operations via HTTP headers. Improper input validation and access control enable unauthorized file deletion, reading, enumeration, and NoSQL operator injection.
- CVE-2026-48203Critical
Vulnerability in Apache Camel Solr component allows SSRF and injection of Solr parameters and fields. Exchange headers with SolrParam. and SolrField. prefixes are passed unfiltered from HTTP requests to the Solr producer, enabling attackers to manipulate queries and indexed documents.
- CVE-2026-46456Critical
Vulnerability in Apache Camel AWS2-SQS component allows attackers to inject Camel control headers (e.g., CamelHttpUri, CamelFileName) via SQS messages. Missing inbound filtering in Sqs2HeaderFilterStrategy enables modification of downstream producer behavior in the route.
Original NVD description (English source)
Improper Input Validation, Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection') vulnerability in Apache Camel Kafka Component. The camel-kafka producer can override its configured target topic at runtime from the kafka.OVERRIDE_TOPIC Exchange header: KafkaProducer.evaluateTopic() returns the header value in preference to the topic configured on the endpoint. The control-header constants in KafkaConstants (for example OVERRIDE_TOPIC = kafka.OVERRIDE_TOPIC, OVERRIDE_TIMESTAMP = kafka.OVERRIDE_TIMESTAMP, PARTITION_KEY = kafka.PARTITION_KEY) used plain, non-Camel-prefixed values. camel-kafka's own KafkaHeaderFilterStrategy does filter the kafka.* namespace, but only on the Kafka-to-Exchange serialization boundary (reading Kafka record headers into the Exchange, and writing Exchange headers into a Kafka record); it does not apply to headers that arrive from an upstream consumer in a multi-component route. The upstream HTTP consumer uses HttpHeaderFilterStrategy, which blocks only the Camel / camel namespace, so a kafka.* header passes through unfiltered. As a result, in a route that bridges an HTTP consumer (for example platform-http) into a kafka: producer, any HTTP client could set the kafka.OVERRIDE_TOPIC header and cause the message to be published to an arbitrary Kafka topic instead of the configured one - redirecting it to a sensitive internal topic, or injecting attacker-crafted messages into a topic consumed by a critical downstream service. The related kafka.OVERRIDE_TIMESTAMP and kafka.PARTITION_KEY headers could likewise be injected to backdate messages or target specific partitions. 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, routes that set or read Kafka headers via the raw header names must use the CamelKafka* names (for example CamelKafkaOverrideTopic and CamelKafkaTopic) instead of the old kafka.* values. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, strip the kafka.* headers from any untrusted ingress before the kafka: producer (for example removeHeaders('kafka.*') at the start of the route), and set the target topic from a trusted source.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS