Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-50633: Apache CXF JNDI injection in JCA integration module

CVE-2026-50633 · Severity: critical · CVSS 9.8 · Published 2026-06-12

Vendors: Apache, Apache Software Foundation.

Executive brief

Apache CXF's JCA (Java Connector Architecture) integration module is vulnerable to JNDI injection attacks that allow remote code execution. An attacker who can manipulate the JCA deployment descriptor (ra.xml) or runtime activation parameters can inject malicious JNDI references and execute arbitrary code on the server. This affects integration points in messaging systems and application servers using CXF for JCA connectivity.

Technical details

This vulnerability is a JNDI injection flaw (CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data, CWE-20: Improper Input Validation) in Apache CXF's cxf-integration-jca module. The DispatchMDBMessageListenerImpl component fails to properly validate inputs when processing JCA activation parameters or the ra.xml deployment descriptor. An unauthenticated remote attacker with network access can exploit this by crafting malicious JNDI references that are resolved during deployment or activation, leading to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the application server. The attack requires the ability to influence the ra.xml file or runtime activation parameters—typically available in JCA deployment scenarios. Fixes are available in versions 4.2.2 (for the 4.2.x branch) and 4.1.7 (for the 4.1.x and earlier branches).

Affected products

  • Apache CXF 4.2.0–4.2.1, 4.1.x before 4.1.7

Timeline

  • 2026-06-12: disclosed: Vulnerability publicly disclosed on GitHub Advisory Database and NVD
  • 2026-06-12: patched: Patches released in versions 4.2.2 and 4.1.7

References