CVE-2026-41731
Combined with Jackson's default bean deserialization, a producer could supply crafted header values that caused the consumer to deserialize arbitrary JDK types.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.51%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
JsonKafkaHeaderMapper and the deprecated DefaultKafkaHeaderMapper matched type headers against trusted packages using a prefix check, meaning that trusting any package implicitly trusted all of its subpackages. Combined with Jackson's default bean deserialization, a producer could supply crafted header values that caused the consumer to deserialize arbitrary JDK types. Affected versions: Spring for Apache Kafka 4.0.0 through 4.0.5; 3.3.0 through 3.3.15; 3.2.0 through 3.2.13; 2.9.0 through 2.9.13; 2.8.0 through 2.8.11.
- CVSS 3.1
- 8.1 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.51% probability · 42th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-502
- Affected
- vmware/spring for apache kafka · redhat/fuse · redhat/jboss enterprise application platform expansion pack
- Source
- security@vmware.com
References
- https://spring.io/security/cve-2026-41731Vendor Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-41731Third Party Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2487375Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-41731.jsonThird Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.