Executive brief
Apache Flink is a framework used for processing large-scale data streams. A vulnerability in its SQL engine allows authorized users to execute malicious code on the servers managing data tasks. This could lead to full system compromise, unauthorized data access, or disruption of data processing operations.
Technical details
A code injection vulnerability exists in the SQL code generation component of Apache Flink. The root cause is the improper neutralization of user-controlled strings when they are interpolated into generated Java code for JSON functions and LIKE expressions with ESCAPE clauses. An authenticated attacker with permissions to submit SQL queries can provide a crafted string that breaks out of Java string literals to inject and execute arbitrary Java expressions. This occurs on the TaskManager nodes during query execution. The issue is fixed in versions 1.20.4, 2.0.2, 2.1.2, and 2.2.1.
Affected products
- Apache flink-table-api-java >= 1.15.0, < 1.20.4; >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.2; >= 2.1.0, < 2.1.2; >= 2.2.0, < 2.2.1
- Apache flink-table-planner_2.12 >= 1.15.0, < 1.20.4; >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.2; >= 2.1.0, < 2.1.2; >= 2.2.0, < 2.2.1
- Apache flink-table-runtime >= 1.15.0, < 1.20.4; >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.2; >= 2.1.0, < 2.1.2; >= 2.2.0, < 2.2.1
Timeline
- 2026-05-15: advisory: Initial disclosure of CVE-2026-35194
- 2026-05-15: disclosed: Public announcement on oss-security mailing list