Executive brief
Sonatype Nexus Repository is a software artifact repository manager used by organizations to host and manage Maven packages and dependencies. An authenticated user with deployment permissions could upload a specially crafted Maven project file (POM) containing an oversized metadata field, causing the repository's listing and browsing functions to permanently fail until an administrator manually repairs the data. Only the targeted repository is affected; other repositories and the server remain operational.
Technical details
This vulnerability involves a denial-of-service condition in Sonatype Nexus Repository's Maven metadata handling. An authenticated user with deployment permissions to a hosted Maven repository can upload a POM file containing a malformed or oversized metadata field. The repository's index or metadata parser does not properly validate or limit the size of these fields, causing subsequent attempts to list or browse that specific repository's components to fail. The failure is persistent until manual administrative intervention repairs the corrupted metadata. The attack requires valid deployment credentials and targets only the specific repository receiving the malicious artifact; other repositories are unaffected.
Affected products
- Sonatype Nexus Repository 3.95.0 through 3.95.4
Timeline
- 2026-09-02: disclosed