CVE-2026-42403
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…
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.76%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
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
- 7.5 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.76% probability · 53th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-400
- Affected
- apache/neethi
- Source
- security@apache.org
References
- https://lists.apache.org/thread/zm6t8skkkskjwk1881l4m4n0l7dqclzoMailing List, Vendor Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/01/7Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.