Apache Shiro up to 2.2.0/3.0.0-alpha-1 DefaultLdapRealm ldap injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Apache Shiro up to 2.2.0/3.0.0-alpha-1. Affected is the function DefaultLdapRealm. This manipulation causes ldap injection. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-49268. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Apache Shiro up to 2.2.0/3.0.0-alpha-1 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function DefaultLdapRealm. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a ldap injection vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-90. The product constructs all or part of an LDAP query using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended LDAP query when it is sent to a downstream component. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A remote attacker can inject LDAP special characters into the Distinguished Name (DN) construction in DefaultLdapRealm class. User-supplied username input is directly concatenated into the LDAP DN template without any escaping of RFC 2253 special characters. This allows an attacker to manipulate the DN structure used for LDAP bind authentication, potentially bypassing authentication or impersonating other users. This issue affects all Apache Shiro versions through 2.2.0, and 3.0.0-alpha-1 when using DefaultLdapRealm Upgrade to Apache Shiro 2.2.1 or 3.0.0-alpha-2 or later, which fixes the issue.

The weakness was shared by Zhaokaifei. It is possible to read the advisory at lists.apache.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-49268 since 05/28/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 06/17/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1505 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• Apache

Name

• Shiro

Version

• 2.0
• 2.1
• 2.2.0
• 3.0.0-alpha-1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.apache.org/

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