CVE-2026-73914 in Helidon
Summary
by MITRE • 08/19/2026
Vulnerability in the Helidon product of Oracle Fusion Middleware (component: Imperative Web Server). The supported version that is affected is 4.5.0. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Helidon. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized read access to a subset of Helidon accessible data and unauthorized ability to cause a partial denial of service (partial DOS) of Helidon. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 6.5 (Confidentiality and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/20/2026
The identified vulnerability resides within the Imperative Web Server component of Oracle Fusion Middleware Helidon, specifically affecting version 4.5.0. This security flaw is characterized by its ease of exploitation and does not require any form of authentication from the attacker. The attack vector is network-based, utilizing standard HTTP protocols to interact with the vulnerable service. Because no user interaction or prior credentials are necessary, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to systems where Helidon is exposed to untrusted networks or the public internet without adequate perimeter defenses such as web application firewalls or strict access control lists that filter traffic before it reaches the application layer.
The technical nature of this flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to achieve unauthorized read access to a subset of data accessible by the Helidon server. This implies that sensitive information, which may include configuration details, internal state variables, or user-specific data depending on the specific implementation and endpoints exposed, can be extracted without proper authorization checks being enforced correctly during request processing. Concurrently, the vulnerability enables an attacker to cause a partial denial of service against the Helidon instance. This availability impact suggests that malicious requests can consume excessive server resources such as memory, CPU cycles, or connection slots, leading to degraded performance for legitimate users or complete unavailability of specific services hosted by the application.
From a classification perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-200, which covers Information Exposure, and potentially CWE-400 regarding Uncontrolled Resource Consumption if the denial-of-service aspect stems from resource exhaustion due to malformed or excessive requests. In terms of adversary tactics, this behavior corresponds to ATT&CK technique T1530, Data from Local System Exfiltration, as it involves reading accessible data without authorization, and potentially T1499, Endpoint Denial of Service, if the partial denial of service is achieved through resource exhaustion techniques. The combination of confidentiality and availability impacts results in a CVSS 3.1 Base Score of 6.5, indicating a medium severity level that warrants prompt attention due to its low exploitation complexity and lack of authentication requirements.
To mitigate this risk, immediate patching to the latest stable version of Oracle Fusion Middleware Helidon is recommended as the primary remediation strategy. In scenarios where upgrading is not immediately feasible, organizations should implement network-level controls such as rate limiting on HTTP endpoints to prevent resource exhaustion attacks that lead to denial of service. Additionally, deploying a Web Application Firewall can help filter out malicious requests and enforce stricter access policies for sensitive data endpoints. It is also critical to review the application's configuration to ensure that only necessary data is exposed through public-facing APIs and that proper authentication mechanisms are enforced on all protected resources rather than relying solely on network-level security measures.