Resource exhaustion in Apache Neethi
CVE-2026-42402
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.
Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)
EPSS: 0.007 (51.3th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Affected products
- Apache Neethi
- Apache Software Foundation Neethi — versions 0
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- security@apache.org (vendor-advisory, Mailing List, Vendor Advisory)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-42402?
- CVE-2026-42402 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apache Neethi, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-05-01.
- How severe is CVE-2026-42402?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.