Apache Neethi 3.2.4 Addresses Five Policy Processing Flaws
Tech GuruQuick Answer
Apache Neethi 3.2.4 fixes five policy-processing denial-of-service issues in earlier releases. Crafted policy documents can exhaust stack or heap memory, multiply normalization/intersection work, or keep a remote-policy fetch open indefinitely. Update the dependency used by the deployed application and assess which policy inputs and reference servers it trusts.
Confirm Scope And Apply The Supported Fix
What to do now: Locate Neethi dependencies before 3.2.4, identify policy parsing, normalization, intersection, and remote-reference paths, update through the application's supported build process, and test those operations with approved inputs.
Last verified: 2026-09-21 UTC. Recheck the authoritative advisory and supported distribution channel before changing production.
Scope And Authority
| Product scope | Apache Neethi releases before 3.2.4 |
|---|---|
| Advisory | CVE-2026-91863 / CVE-2026-91864 / CVE-2026-91865 / CVE-2026-91866 / CVE-2026-91867 |
| CVEs | CVE-2026-91863, CVE-2026-91864, CVE-2026-91865, CVE-2026-91866, CVE-2026-91867 |
| Earliest listed CVE record publication | 2026-09-21 11:25:26.648 UTC |
| Recorded CVE revision (historical snapshot) | 2026-09-21 13:36:42.505 UTC |
| Affected versions | Apache Neethi releases before 3.2.4 |
| Fixed version | Apache Neethi 3.2.4 |
| CVSS base score | Not provided by the authority |
| CVSS severity | Not provided by the authority |
| Exploitation status | Not stated by the authority; no exploitation claim is inferred. |
What Changed
CVE-2026-91863: Deeply nested policy elements bypass the nesting limit and exhaust the parsing thread's stack.
CVE-2026-91864: Content inside an assertion is copied without being counted against size limits, allowing heap exhaustion.
CVE-2026-91865: Repeated policy references are re-expanded during normalization; a small input can require exponentially growing CPU and memory.
CVE-2026-91866: A crafted pair of policies can force exponential work during policy intersection and occupy the CPU for a prolonged period.
CVE-2026-91867: Remote-reference retrieval limits individual reads but not the whole transfer. A server that sends bytes slowly can keep the calling thread occupied indefinitely. All five issues are addressed in 3.2.4; this notice does not assign an unpublished score or claim exploitation.
What To Validate Now
- Inventory. Locate Apache Neethi releases before 3.2.4 deployments, versions, enabled features, exposure paths, owners, and dependent services.
- Establish applicability. Confirm the deployed Neethi version and which policy-processing operations receive untrusted documents or remote responses. A small policy document can still cause excessive expansion work.
- Remediate. Apply Apache Neethi 3.2.4 through the supported vendor or project channel, following the current advisory and change-control requirements.
- Validate. Verify the dependency in the released artifact, exercise approved policy parsing/normalization/intersection and remote retrieval, and check timeout and resource-limit handling in a controlled environment.
- Retain evidence. Preserve asset and owner identifiers, the applicability decision, before-and-after versions, change approval, installation output, validation results, and any exception or rollback record.
Operational Cautions
Use the exact supported release stream and repository. Test dependencies, clusters, integrations, and rollback before broad deployment; a CVSS rating or reachable feature is not evidence of exploitation.
Evidence To Retain
- Exact product, release stream, package or application version, enabled feature, environment, and accountable owner.
- UTC timestamps, authority revision, approved change record, installer or package-manager output, and resulting version.
- Relevant logs and monitoring evidence, test results, exceptions, compensating controls, and rollback decisions.
Related TechGeeks Resources
Authoritative References
Correction policy: If the authority changes affected versions, fixed versions, severity, exploitation information, mitigations, or required action, TechGeeks will update this notice and its verification date.
