CVE-2026-42403 — neethi
HIGHCVE-2026-42403 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: Circular Policy Reference Infinite Loop
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-2026-42403.
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 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.
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-2026-42403 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable.
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 Moderate flaw in Apache Neethi allows a remote attacker to trigger a Denial of Service condition. By crafting malicious WS-Policy documents with circular references, an attacker can cause the policy normalization process to enter an infinite loop or excessive recursion, leading to application instability or a…
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-2026-42403 (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-2026-42403 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.