CVE-2026-33454 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.4) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in org.apache.camel:camel-mail. A fix is available for org.apache.camel:camel-mail — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache Camel: Inbound Header Filter Missing in MailHeaderFilterStrategy Allows Remote Code Execution via MIME Header Injection (CVE-2025-30177 Variant)
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-33454.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-33454 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.camel:camel-mail☕org.apache.camel:camel-mailReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The Camel-Mail component is vulnerable to Camel message header injection. The custom header filter strategy used by the component (MailHeaderFilterStrategy) only filters the 'out' direction via setOutFilterStartsWith, while it does not configure the 'in' direction via setInFilterStartsWith. As a result, when a Camel application consumes mail through camel-mail (for example via from("imap://...") or from("pop3://...")) the inbound filter check is skipped and Camel-prefixed MIME headers are mapped unfiltered into the Exchange. An attacker who can deliver an email to a mailbox monitored by such a consumer can inject Camel-specific headers that, for some Camel components downstream of the mail consumer (such as camel-bean, camel-exec, or camel-sql), can alter the behaviour of the route. This is the same pattern that was previously addressed in camel-undertow (CVE-2025-30177) and the broader incoming-header filter (CVE-2025-27636 and CVE-2025-29891).
This issue affects Apache Camel: from 3.0.0 before 4.14.6, from 4.15.0 before 4.18.1.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.19.0, which fixes the issue. If users are on the 4.18.x LTS releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.18.1. If users are on the 4.14.x LTS releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.14.6.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.camel:camel-mail | ≥ 3.0.0&&< 4.14.6 | 4.14.6org.apache.camel:camel-mail:4.14.6 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.camel:camel-mail | ≥ 4.15.0&&< 4.18.1 | 4.18.1org.apache.camel:camel-mail:4.18.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.camel:camel-mail, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.camel:camel-mail to 4.14.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-33454 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-33454 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-33454. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Build of Apache Camel 4.14 for Quarkus 3.27 | camel-mail | RHSA-2026:19835 |
| Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.18.1 for Spring Boot 3.5.14 | camel-mail | RHSA-2026:17668 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-33454 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-33454 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.