Description
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.
Affected products
apache: neethi
References2
- lists.apache.org/thread/p826j0phhmr9f83wzpmys1y0bdfrr2q4 Mailing ListVendor Advisory
- www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/01/6 Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
Metrics
- CVSS 3.1
-
7.5
HIGH
Score source: CNA
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - EPSS — exploit probability
- 1% percentile: 54 · as of 13 November 2026
- CWE
- CWE-400
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