CVE-2026-40453
Apache Camel 3.0.0 – 4.14.6
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-40453 is a critical-severity Improper Handling of Case Sensitivity (CWE-178) vulnerability in Apache Camel. Its CVSS base score is 9.9 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Masquerading (T1036); ranked in the top 27% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2026-40453 is a vulnerability in Apache Camel that stems from an incomplete fix for CVE-2025-27636. The prior patch added case-insensitive filtering via setLowerCase(true) to HttpHeaderFilterStrategy, but omitted this from five other implementations: JmsHeaderFilterStrategy and ClassicJmsHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-jms, SjmsHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-sjms, CoAPHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-coap, and GooglePubsubHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-google-pubsub. These strategies perform case-sensitive filtering with String.startsWith('Camel'/'camel'), while Camel Exchange stores headers in a case-insensitive map. This allows case-variant internal headers, such as 'CAmelExecCommandExecutable', to bypass filtering and be resolved by downstream components using canonical casing. The issue affects Apache Camel versions from 3.0.0 before 4.14.6, 4.15.0 before 4.18.2, and 4.19.0 before 4.20.0, with a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.9 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) and maps to CWE-178.
An attacker requires producer access to a JMS (or equivalent protocol like CoAP or Google Pub/Sub) broker that feeds into a vulnerable Camel route. By sending messages with case-variant Camel internal headers, the attacker can inject headers that pass the case-sensitive filter but are interpreted case-insensitively downstream. This enables exploitation of header-driven components such as camel-exec for remote code execution or camel-file for arbitrary file writes on the host running the Camel application.
The Apache Camel security advisory at https://camel.apache.org/security/CVE-2026-40453.html recommends upgrading to version 4.20.0 to address the issue. Users on the 4.14.x LTS stream should upgrade to 4.14.6, while those on the 4.18.x stream should upgrade to 4.18.2.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-25791
Vulnerability Data
The fix for CVE-2025-27636 added setLowerCase(true) to HttpHeaderFilterStrategy so that case-variant header names such as 'CAmelExecCommandExecutable' are filtered out alongside 'CamelExecCommandExecutable'. The same setLowerCase(true) call was not applied to five non-HTTP HeaderFilterStrategy implementations: JmsHeaderFilterStrategy and ClassicJmsHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-jms, SjmsHeaderFilterStrategy in…
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camel-sjms, CoAPHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-coap, and GooglePubsubHeaderFilterStrategy in camel-google-pubsub. Because those strategies use case-sensitive String.startsWith('Camel'/'camel') filtering while the Camel Exchange stores headers in a case-insensitive map, an attacker with JMS (or equivalent) producer access to the broker consumed by a Camel route can inject case-variant Camel internal headers, which are then resolved by downstream components such as camel-exec and camel-file using their canonical casing. This enables remote code execution and arbitrary file write on routes that forward JMS messages to header-driven components. This issue affects Apache Camel: from 3.0.0 before 4.14.6, from 4.15.0 before 4.18.2, from 4.19.0 before 4.20.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.20.0, which fixes the issue. If users are on the 4.14.x LTS releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.14.6. If users are on the 4.18.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to 4.18.2.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Applying access control decisions to each request depends on accurate property determination that accounts for case differences.
Correct enforcement of authorizations for resource access structurally requires consistent case-sensitive handling of identifiers to avoid incorrect decisions.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices can catch and prevent case-sensitivity flaws during code review or testing, but fixing one CWE achieves negligible coverage of the broad control.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices should include case-sensitivity requirements in design and coding standards.
Application security requirements must specify case handling for identifiers and paths.
Architecture principles should enforce canonical, case-aware resource naming.
Secure coding guidelines must mandate explicit case handling to prevent inconsistent lookups.
Access-control rules that ignore case can allow unintended resource access.
Authentication logic must treat identifiers consistently to avoid bypass via case differences.