Vmware Spring for Apache Kafka up to 4.0.5 Header deserialization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Vmware Spring for Apache Kafka up to 2.8.11/2.9.13/3.2.13/3.3.15/4.0.5 and classified as problematic. This affects an unknown function of the component Header Handler. The manipulation leads to deserialization. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-41731. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Vmware Spring for Apache Kafka up to 2.8.11/2.9.13/3.2.13/3.3.15/4.0.5. This issue affects an unknown part of the component Header Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a deserialization vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-502. The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

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.

The advisory is shared at spring.io. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-41731 since 04/22/2026. The exploitation is known to be difficult. 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. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 06/10/2026).

Upgrading to version 2.8.12, 2.9.14, 3.2.14, 3.3.16 or 4.0.6 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• Vmware

Name

• Spring for Apache Kafka

Version

• 2.8.0
• 2.8.1
• 2.8.2
• 2.8.3
• 2.8.4
• 2.8.5
• 2.8.6
• 2.8.7
• 2.8.8
• 2.8.9
• 2.8.10
• 2.8.11
• 2.9.0
• 2.9.1
• 2.9.2
• 2.9.3
• 2.9.4
• 2.9.5
• 2.9.6
• 2.9.7
• 2.9.8
• 2.9.9
• 2.9.10
• 2.9.11
• 2.9.12
• 2.9.13
• 3.2.0
• 3.2.1
• 3.2.2
• 3.2.3
• 3.2.4
• 3.2.5
• 3.2.6
• 3.2.7
• 3.2.8
• 3.2.9
• 3.2.10
• 3.2.11
• 3.2.12
• 3.2.13
• 3.3.0
• 3.3.1
• 3.3.2
• 3.3.3
• 3.3.4
• 3.3.5
• 3.3.6
• 3.3.7
• 3.3.8
• 3.3.9
• 3.3.10
• 3.3.11
• 3.3.12
• 3.3.13
• 3.3.14
• 3.3.15
• 4.0.0
• 4.0.1
• 4.0.2
• 4.0.3
• 4.0.4
• 4.0.5

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.vmware.com/

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