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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2026-46457 json

Apache Camel: Camel-NATS: Inbound NATS message headers are mapped into the Exchange without a configured HeaderFilterStrategy, allowing a client that can publish to the subject to inject Camel control headers

published 2026-07-06 4 mo ago modified 2026-10-25 15 d ago also GHSA-7v55-q9x3-83cj , EUVD-2026-41831

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 51%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Apache Camel NATS component.

The camel-nats component maps inbound NATS message headers into the Camel Exchange but defaulted its headerFilterStrategy to a bare new DefaultHeaderFilterStrategy() with no inbound rules configured (NatsConfiguration). With no inFilter, inFilterPattern or inFilterStartsWith set, DefaultHeaderFilterStrategy.applyFilterToExternalHeaders returns not filtered for every header name, so NatsConsumer copies every NATS message header - including Camel-internal control headers such as CamelHttpUri, CamelFileName or CamelSqlQuery - unmodified onto the Camel message. A client able to publish to the consumed NATS subject can therefore inject arbitrary Camel control headers that influence the behaviour of downstream producers in the route (for example redirecting an HTTP producer, changing a file name, or overriding a query); the injected headers also persist across internal direct, seda and vm hops. The concrete downstream impact depends on which producers the route uses. NATS message headers require NATS 2.2 or later, and the issue is reachable without credentials when the NATS server is configured without authentication (the NATS server default). This issue affects Apache Camel: from 4.0.0 before 4.14.8, from 4.15.0 before 4.18.3, from 4.19.0 before 4.21.0.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.21.0, which fixes the issue. If users are on the 4.14.x LTS releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.14.8. If users are on the 4.18.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.18.3. The fix makes camel-nats default to a dedicated NatsHeaderFilterStrategy that filters the Camel header namespace case-insensitively on inbound mapping, so client-supplied Camel* / camel* headers are no longer copied into the Exchange. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, strip the Camel control headers from inbound NATS messages before they reach any downstream producer (for example removeHeaders('Camel*') and removeHeaders('camel*') at the start of the route), and enable authentication on the NATS server so that only trusted clients can publish to the consumed subject.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.apache.camel:camel-nats 4.14.8, 4.18.3, 4.21.0
  • Apache Software Foundation Apache Camel 4.14.8, 4.18.3, 4.21.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-46457 updated cvss 7.5

camel-nats: Apache Camel: Camel-NATS: Inbound NATS message headers are mapped into the Exchange without a configured HeaderFilterStrategy, allowing a client that can publish to the subject to inject C

  • Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.18.4 for Spring Boot 3.5.16
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:71675

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
4 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.66% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 51% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.apache.camel:camel-nats
>=4.0.0, <4.14.8
>=4.15.0, <4.18.3
>=4.19.0, <4.21.0
4.14.8
4.18.3
4.21.0

Affected products

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache Camel

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

Sources

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