swaldman c3p0 up to 0.13.x DataSource.getConnection deserialization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in swaldman c3p0 up to 0.13.x and classified as critical. This vulnerability affects the function DataSource.getConnection. Executing a manipulation can lead to deserialization. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-55223. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in swaldman c3p0 up to 0.13.x. This vulnerability affects the function DataSource.getConnection. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a deserialization vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-502. The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

c3p0 is a JDBC Connection pooling library. In versions prior to 0.14.0, c3p0 in combination with other libraries, can compose to a "sink" for deserialization gadgets. The JDBC spec's DataSource.getConnection() and ConnectionPoolDataSource.getPooledConnection() match the getXXX() form, so JavaBean libraries treat them as "properties" assumed safe while they actually call into JDBC drivers. Attackers can thus craft malicious DataSource objects whose property lookups invoke vulnerable drivers, then smuggle them in serialized form to where an application deserializes and auto-resolves bean properties — triggering the attack. This requires a susceptible DataSource/ConnectionPoolDataSource and JDBC driver on the CLASSPATH, plus a carrier that auto-looks-up JavaBean properties on = deserialization, most commonly a collection paired with an Apache commons-beanutils Comparator that sorts by bean properties. c3p0 supplied that susceptible DataSource/ConnectionPoolDataSource, which was an essential component of the trigger. This issue has been fixed in version 0.14.0.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-55223 since 06/16/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is required for a successful exploitation. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 0.14.0 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 7b022c4b6694dabc6204254dc917af9c38f2cb27 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• swaldman

Name

• c3p0

Version

• 0.1
• 0.2
• 0.3
• 0.4
• 0.5
• 0.6
• 0.7
• 0.8
• 0.9
• 0.10
• 0.11
• 0.12
• 0.13

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/swaldman/c3p0/

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