GHSA-42q5-xw42-xf9g is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-209 vulnerability in org.apache.camel:camel-netty-http. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-42q5-xw42-xf9g is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Apache Camel-Netty-HTTP: The muteException consumer option defaulted to false, so a processing error returned the full Java stack trace in the HTTP response body
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 GHSA-42q5-xw42-xf9g.
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
GHSA-42q5-xw42-xf9g 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 365,950 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-netty-http☕org.apache.camel:camel-netty-http☕org.apache.camel:camel-netty-httpReal-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
Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information vulnerability in Apache Camel Netty HTTP component.
The camel-netty-http HTTP server consumer exposes a muteException option that controls what is returned to the client when a route processing error occurs. This option defaulted to false because the backing field was an uninitialised primitive boolean (Java's default of false), whereas the other Camel HTTP server components (camel-http / camel-jetty / camel-servlet and camel-platform-http) default it to true. With muteException=false, when a request triggers an exception during route processing the consumer writes the full Throwable stack trace into the HTTP response body as text/plain (via DefaultNettyHttpBinding) instead of returning an empty body. Any unauthenticated client that can reach the endpoint and cause a processing error - for example by sending a malformed request body, an invalid parameter, or otherwise triggering a route-internal failure - therefore receives a complete Java stack trace. Such a stack trace can disclose sensitive internal information, including credentials embedded in exception messages, internal host names and IP addresses, filesystem paths, dependency and version details, database and class names, and the application's internal structure, which an attacker can use to plan further attacks. 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. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, set muteException=true explicitly on the camel-netty-http consumer (for example netty-http: http://0.0.0.0:8080/api?muteException=true , or globally via the camel.component.netty-http.configuration.mute-exception=true property), so that processing errors no longer return the stack trace to the client.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.camel:camel-netty-http | ≥ 4.0.0&&< 4.14.8 | 4.14.8 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.camel:camel-netty-http | ≥ 4.15.0&&< 4.18.3 | 4.18.3 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.camel:camel-netty-http | ≥ 4.19.0&&< 4.21.0 | 4.21.0 |
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-netty-http. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update org.apache.camel:camel-netty-http to 4.14.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-42q5-xw42-xf9g 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-42q5-xw42-xf9g is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-42q5-xw42-xf9g. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-42q5-xw42-xf9g in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-42q5-xw42-xf9g across Maven dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.