Apache Camel: Camel-CXF Message Header Injection via Missing Inbound Filtering
Summary
Camel-CXF and Camel-Knative Message Header Injection via Missing Inbound Filtering The CXF and Knative HeaderFilterStrategy implementations (CxfRsHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-cxf-rest, CxfHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-cxf-transport, and KnativeHttpHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-knative-http) only filter outbound Camel-internal headers via setOutFilterStartsWith, while not configuring inbound filtering via setInFilterStartsWith. As a result, an unauthenticated attacker can inject Camel-internal headers (e.g. CamelExecCommandExecutable, CamelFileName) via HTTP requests to CXF-RS or CXF-SOAP endpoints. When a route forwards messages from these endpoints to header-driven components such as camel-exec or camel-file, the injected headers override configured values, enabling remote code execution or arbitrary file writes. This is the same pattern that was previously addressed in camel-undertow (CVE-2025-30177), the broader incoming-header filter (CVE-2025-27636 and CVE-2025-29891), and non-HTTP strategies (CVE-2026-40453). This issue affects Apache Camel: from 3.18.0 before 4.14.6, from 4.15.0 before 4.18.2. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.19.0, which fixes the issue. If users are on the 4.18.x LTS releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.18.2.
What this means
In plain English
Camel-CXF and Camel-Knative Message Header Injection via Missing Inbound Filtering The CXF and Knative HeaderFilterStrategy implementations (CxfRsHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-cxf-rest, CxfHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-cxf-transport, and KnativeHttpHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-knative-http) only filter outbound Camel-internal headers via setOutFilterStartsWith, while not configuring inbound filtering via setInFilterStartsWith. As a result, an unauthenticated attacker can inject Camel-internal headers (e.g. CamelExecCommandExecutable, CamelFileName) via HTTP requests to CXF-RS or CXF-SOAP endpoints. The official description indicates that exploitation does not require prior authentication. Successful exploitation can let an attacker run code in the security context of the affected service or device.
Recommended action
Primary action: update to a vendor-listed fixed release: 4.14.6, 4.18.2.
Rewritten locally from the scraped official advisory data above; no generative API is used. The vendor advisory is authoritative.
- Apache Camel 3.18.0 before 4.14.6
- Apache Camel 4.15.0 before 4.18.2
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
- 4.14.6
- 4.18.2
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
Mitigation
Upgrade to a fixed release: 4.14.6, 4.18.2. That is the remediation for this advisory.
The vendor advisory may list additional interim mitigations or workarounds not captured here — review it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
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