CVE-2026-101577 in Helidon
Summary
by MITRE • 10/21/2026
Vulnerability in the Helidon product of Oracle Fusion Middleware (component: helidon-cors). Supported versions that are affected are 4.0.0-4.5.5. Difficult to exploit vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Helidon. Successful attacks require human interaction from a person other than the attacker. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of Helidon accessible data. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 3.1 (Integrity impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N).
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/21/2026
The identified vulnerability resides within the helidon-cors component of Oracle Fusion Middleware's Helidon product line, specifically affecting versions ranging from 4.0.0 through 4.5.5. This security flaw is classified as a Cross-Origin Resource Sharing misconfiguration that permits unauthorized access to sensitive data under specific conditions. The core technical issue stems from an improper validation or implementation of CORS policies within the web server framework, which allows HTTP requests originating from untrusted domains to bypass intended restrictions. While the vulnerability requires network access via standard HTTP protocols and does not demand authentication for the initial attack vector, it introduces a significant risk to data integrity by enabling unauthorized modifications such as updates, inserts, or deletes against accessible resources.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a moderate but tangible threat due to its reliance on human interaction for successful exploitation. The attacker must induce a victim user with valid access privileges to perform an action that triggers the malicious request, effectively leveraging social engineering tactics to bypass security controls. This characteristic aligns closely with CWE-942, which describes Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities where applications fail to verify the origin of state-changing requests. Furthermore, this scenario maps directly to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1566.002, known as Spearphishing Link, wherein an attacker sends a malicious link that causes the victim's browser to make unauthorized API calls or data modifications on behalf of the authenticated user. The requirement for human interaction significantly raises the complexity of exploitation, resulting in a low base CVSS 3.1 score of 3.1, primarily impacting integrity rather than confidentiality or availability.
The impact of this vulnerability is strictly limited to integrity violations within the scope of Helidon-accessible data. An attacker who successfully exploits this flaw can manipulate application state by forcing authenticated users to submit unintended commands or modify records without their explicit consent. This undermines the trust model of web applications that rely on session cookies for authentication, as the browser automatically includes these credentials in cross-origin requests if CORS headers are misconfigured. Although the attack does not directly expose sensitive data like passwords or personal information (confidentiality), it allows an adversary to corrupt database entries, alter user profiles, or inject malicious content into application outputs. This can lead to downstream consequences such as defacement, data corruption, or further exploitation through chained attacks that leverage the altered state for privilege escalation or additional phishing campaigns.
Mitigation strategies should focus on both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. The most effective solution is to upgrade Helidon to a version beyond 4.5.5 where this CORS misconfiguration has been addressed by Oracle. For environments unable to patch immediately, administrators must implement strict CORS policies that explicitly whitelist trusted origins rather than relying on wildcard or permissive configurations. It is critical to ensure that the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header does not reflect user input and that sensitive endpoints requiring state changes enforce additional verification mechanisms such as synchronized tokens or custom headers that are not automatically sent by browsers in cross-origin requests. Additionally, deploying a Web Application Firewall with rules capable of detecting anomalous cross-domain POST requests can provide an external layer of defense against exploitation attempts while patching efforts are underway.