CVE-2026-42402 — neethi
HIGHCVE-2026-42402 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in org.apache.neethi:neethi. A fix is available for org.apache.neethi:neethi — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache Neethi: Policy Normalization Unbounded Resource Allocation DoS
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-2026-42402.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.neethi:neethiReal-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
Apache Neethi is vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack through algorithmic complexity in policy normalization. Specially crafted WS-Policy documents can trigger an exponential Cartesian cross-product expansion during the normalization process, causing unbounded memory allocation that exhausts the JVM heap. This occurs when the normalization process generates an excessive number of policy alternatives without bounds, leading to runtime memory exhaustion.
Users should upgrade to 3.2.2 which limits the maximum number of normalized policy alternatives.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.neethi:neethi | all versions | 3.2.2org.apache.neethi:neethi:3.2.2 |
Affected Products
neethiapacheDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.neethi:neethi, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.neethi:neethi to 3.2.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-42402 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
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.
This flaw is rated Moderate because Apache Neethi, as used in Red Hat products, is susceptible to a denial of service. Remote attackers can provide malicious WS-Policy documents, leading to an algorithmic complexity issue during policy normalization. This results in unbounded memory allocation, exhausting the JVM heap…
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-42402 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Build of Apache Camel 4.14 for Quarkus 3.27 | neethi | RHSA-2026:19835 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-42402 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.