Advisory [CVE-2026-97468] Apache CXF's STSTokenValidator and Security Token Service (STS) cached validated security tokens under a non-cryptographic 32-bit hash of the token (Java Arrays.hashCode/hashCode), and treated a cache hit as proof that the presented token had already been validated

Apache CXF's STSTokenValidator and Security Token Service (STS) cached validated security tokens under a non-cryptographic 32-bit hash of the token (Java Arrays.hashCode/hashCode()), and treated a cache hit as proof that the presented token had already been validated.

An attacker could craft a token (for example a UsernameToken or a self-signed SAML Assertion) whose hash collides with a cached entry. The token would then be accepted without password validation, signature trust verification or a call to the STS.

This could let the attacker authenticate as another user and, through STS token validation or renewal, obtain STS-signed tokens for that identity. Users are recommended to upgrade to versions 4.2.4 or 4.1.9 or 3.6.13, which fix this issue.