Hibernate Validator up to 6.1.x Expression Language code injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Hibernate Validator up to 6.1.x. The impacted element is an unknown function of the component Expression Language Handler. The manipulation leads to code injection. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2025-35036. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Hibernate Validator up to 6.1.x. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects an unknown code of the component Expression Language Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a code injection vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-94. The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Hibernate Validator before 6.2.0 and 7.0.0, by default and depending how it is used, may interpolate user-supplied input in a constraint violation message with Expression Language. This could allow an attacker to access sensitive information or execute arbitrary Java code. Hibernate Validator as of 6.2.0 and 7.0.0 no longer interpolates custom constraint violation messages with Expression Language and strongly recommends not allowing user-supplied input in constraint violation messages. CVE-2020-5245 and CVE-2025-4428 are examples of related, downstream vulnerabilities involving Expression Language intepolation of user-supplied data.

The advisory is shared at hibernate.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-35036 since 04/15/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1059 for this issue.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 242091 (RHEL 9 : Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4.23 Security update (Important) (RHSA-2025:10926)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.2.0 or 7.0.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (242091) and EUVD (EUVD-2025-16774). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Vendor

• Hibernate

Name

• Validator

Version

• 6.0
• 6.1

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CPE 2.2info

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If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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