CVE-2026-41731
Received Received - Intake
Deserialization Flaw in Spring for Apache Kafka

Publication date: 2026-06-10

Last updated on: 2026-06-10

Assigner: VMware

Description
JsonKafkaHeaderMapper and the deprecated DefaultKafkaHeaderMapper matched type headers against trusted packages using a prefix check, meaning that trusting any package implicitly trusted all of its subpackages. Combined with Jackson's default bean deserialization, a producer could supply crafted header values that caused the consumer to deserialize arbitrary JDK types. Affected versions: Spring for Apache Kafka 4.0.0 through 4.0.5; 3.3.0 through 3.3.15; 3.2.0 through 3.2.13; 2.9.0 through 2.9.13; 2.8.0 through 2.8.11.
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Meta Information
Published
2026-06-10
Last Modified
2026-06-10
Generated
2026-06-10
AI Q&A
2026-06-10
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-41731
EUVD
EUVD-2026-35908
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 6 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
vmware spring_for_apache_kafka From 2.8.0 (inc) to 4.0.5 (inc)
vmware spring_for_apache_kafka From 2.8.0 (inc) to 2.8.11 (inc)
vmware spring_for_apache_kafka From 2.9.0 (inc) to 2.9.13 (inc)
vmware spring_for_apache_kafka From 3.2.0 (inc) to 3.2.13 (inc)
vmware spring_for_apache_kafka From 3.3.0 (inc) to 3.3.15 (inc)
vmware spring_for_apache_kafka From 4.0.0 (inc) to 4.0.5 (inc)
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-502 The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently ensuring that the resulting data will be valid.
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Mitigation Strategies

The immediate step to mitigate this vulnerability is to upgrade Spring for Apache Kafka to one of the fixed versions: 4.0.6, 3.3.16, 3.2.14, 2.9.14, or 2.8.12.

No additional mitigation steps are required beyond upgrading.

Executive Summary

CVE-2026-41731 is a vulnerability in Spring for Apache Kafka where the JsonKafkaHeaderMapper and the deprecated DefaultKafkaHeaderMapper used a prefix check to match trusted packages. This meant that trusting a package implicitly trusted all its subpackages.

Because of this, combined with Jackson's default bean deserialization, an attacker could craft malicious header values that cause the consumer to deserialize arbitrary Java JDK types. This could include classes that have side effects such as allocating file descriptors or spawning thread pools.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause unintended side effects on the consumer application by deserializing crafted header values. This can lead to severe impacts such as resource exhaustion, denial of service, or unauthorized actions within the affected system.

Compliance Impact

The provided information does not specify any direct impact of this vulnerability on compliance with common standards and regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA.

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