Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-111115 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-111115 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-111115?
- Informational severity, published 28 October 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Apache Kafka prior to 4.2.2, 4.3.2, and 4.4.0.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-111115?
- Yes: fixed in Apache Kafka 4.2.2, 4.3.2, 4.4.0. Until then: Until upgrading, lower socket.request.max.bytes and restrict network access to broker listeners to reduce exposure. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-111115 attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in a software library.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-111115?
- Check whether you run Apache Kafka at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
How to fix
- Fixed in: Apache Kafka 4.2.2, 4.3.2, 4.4.0
Until upgrading, lower socket.request.max.bytes and restrict network access to broker listeners to reduce exposure.
Technical details
The code-generated readers for flexible protocol versions (header version 2) read a tagged-field count from the sender without bounding it against remaining buffer bytes or enforcing a cap, only constraining it by the outer request frame size (socket.request.max.bytes). Each RawTaggedField object is allocated per declared field with minimal encoding overhead (two bytes minimum), enabling amplification attacks. The vulnerability is exploitable on pre-authentication APIs such as ApiVersions v3, which parse the flexible header before authorization or quota checks.
Affected products
- Apache Kafka prior to 4.2.2, 4.3.2, and 4.4.0
Timeline
- 2026-10-28: disclosed