CVE-2026-88901
Apache Camel: Camel-Smooks XML External Entity Processing, external entities resolved by default
02 Description
Apache Camel: Camel-Smooks XML External Entity Processing, external entities resolved by default
03 Exploitation and scoring
- Exploitation
- Assessed, none found. CISA's assessment recorded neither public exploit code nor evidence of exploitation when it was made.
- SSVC decision
- ExploitationnoneCISA recorded no public exploit code and no evidence of exploitation.
- AutomatableyesAn attacker can reliably automate reconnaissance through exploitation, so this scales.
- Technical ImpactpartialSuccessful exploitation gives limited control of the vulnerable component.
- EPSS probability
- 0.44% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
- EPSS percentile
- Equal to or higher than the score of 38.6% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.
- NVD base score
- 8.2 (CVSS v3.x), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.
- NVD CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:L
- NVD analysis status
- Awaiting Analysis. NVD last modified this record on 2026-10-19.
- Red Hat severity
- Important. Red Hat's rating for its own products, not a CVSS rating.
Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.
04 Metadata
- Published
- 2026-10-19 10:44Z9 DAYS AGO
- Last updated
- 2026-10-19 14:30Z9 DAYS AGO
- Reserved
- 2026-09-10
- Assigning CNA
- apache
- Record state
- PUBLISHED
- Severity
- High (CVSS 8.2)
- CNA CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:L
- Weaknesses
- CWE-611Improper Restriction of XML External Entity ReferenceBase
- Data version
- 5.2
- Document digest
- 3502e80f7069bb3e53d62c4cd69817f062e5788b0f0ef075cb4266b978e63518
05 Affected products
06 References
- camel.apache.orgApache Camel Security Advisory - CVE-2026-88901https://camel.apache.org/security/CVE-2026-88901.html
- issues.apache.orgCAMEL-24677https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CAMEL-24677
- github.comFix on main for 4.23.0 (commit 4b1fc499a0ceff909612b5310152cd71517888f7)https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/26270
- github.comBackport to camel-4.22.x for 4.22.1 (commit 1b375c171e2546cafdcaadc2aa9f7346a25a4cd7)https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/26327
- github.comBackport to camel-4.18.x for 4.18.5 (commit 680290f6ba5324301673b7353564130af6d2ad83)https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/26329
07 Remediation
Upgrade to Apache Camel 4.23.0, which fixes the issue. Users on the 4.18.x LTS releases stream should upgrade to 4.18.5. Users on the 4.22.x LTS releases stream should upgrade to 4.22.1. camel-smooks now parses the XML body with a javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder that does not resolve external general or parameter entities and does not load external DTDs, and hands Smooks the resulting document, matching the secure XML processing configuration used by org.apache.camel.converter.jaxp.XmlConverter and the other Camel XML components. This hardening is applied only when the Smooks configuration parses XML with its default reader, so EDI, CSV, JSON and custom-reader configurations, and the marshalling direction, are unchanged. A new allowExternalEntities option, disabled by default, restores the previous behaviour for trusted legacy configurations that rely on external entity resolution. The camel-4.14.x releases stream and earlier reached end of life before this issue was resolved and will not receive a fix, so deployments on those lines must move to a supported release. For deployments that cannot upgrade immediately, do not apply camel-smooks to XML received from untrusted senders.