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Vulnerability record · CVE-2026-42403 · published 1 May 2026

CVE-2026-42403: Apache neethi uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability

Apache · Neethi

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.

7.5 CVSS 3.1 High EPSS 0.80% · top 45.2% CWE-400 · Uncontrolled resource consumption
7.5CVSS 3.1 base score
0.80%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
2References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

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.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://lists.apache.org/thread/zm6t8skkkskjwk1881l4m4n0l7dqclzo Mailing ListVendor Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/01/7 Mailing ListThird Party Advisory

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

7.5CVE-2026-91866Apache neethi allocation without limits vulnerabilityA specially crafted pair of WS-Policy documents can force Neethi's policy-intersection to do exponential amounts of work, pinning the CPU for a long …EPSS 0.74%7.5CVE-2026-91863Apache neethi vulnerabilityA specially crafted WS-Policy document with deeply nested policy elements can bypass Neethi's nesting-depth limit and exhaust the thread stack, crash…EPSS 0.76%7.5CVE-2026-91864Apache neethi allocation without limits vulnerabilityA specially crafted WS-Policy document can pack unlimited content inside a policy assertion, which Neethi copies into memory without counting it agai…EPSS 0.74%7.5CVE-2026-91865Apache neethi allocation without limits vulnerabilityA small WS-Policy document using repeated policy references can force Neethi to re-expand the same references exponentially during normalization, con…EPSS 0.74%7.5CVE-2026-66142Apache neethi uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerabilityApache Neethi is vulnerable to uncontrolled recursion when parsing policies that lack policy Ids or with deeply nested structures, which may lead to …EPSS 0.74%7.5CVE-2026-66143Apache neethi uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerabilityIt is possible to bypass the maximum number of normalized policy alternatives that was introduced in Apache Neethi 3.2.2 via certain crafted policies…EPSS 0.85%7.5CVE-2026-66144Apache neethi uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerabilityAlthough remote policy references are not retrieved during policy normalization, if they are manually retrieved via the API it can cause a denial of …EPSS 0.74%7.5CVE-2026-42402Apache neethi uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerabilityApache Neethi is vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack through algorithmic complexity in policy normalization. Specially crafted WS-Policy documen…EPSS 0.74%

Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2026-42403), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.