# CVE-2026-91867: Neethi remote policy fetch thread exhaustion

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-91867-when-neethi-fetches-a-remote-policy-reference-it-only-limits-the  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-09-21. Updated: 2026-09-26  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-91867 · Severity: medium · CVSS 4.3 · Published 2026-09-21

Neethi is an Apache library that processes web service policy documents. When fetching a policy from a remote server, the library only enforces a timeout per individual read operation, not for the entire transfer. An attacker can exploit this by sending data very slowly, keeping the connection alive indefinitely and exhausting the application's thread pool, causing a denial of service.

Technologies: [Apache Neethi](https://junglewise.ai/threats/technologies/apache-neethi). Vendors: [Apache](https://junglewise.ai/threats/vendors/apache).

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-91867 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-91867 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-91867?** Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 4.3, published 21 September 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** Apache Neethi before 3.2.4.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-91867?** No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

**How is CVE-2026-91867 attacked?** It is attacked over the network, in a software library.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-91867?** Check whether you run Apache Neethi 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.

## Technical details

Neethi lacks a total timeout for remote policy reference fetches; it only enforces per-read timeouts. An attacker can send bytes at an extremely slow rate to keep the socket open indefinitely, tying up the calling thread and eventually exhausting available threads. This is a denial of service via thread exhaustion that requires only network-level access to a host making policy fetch requests.

## Affected products

- Apache Neethi before 3.2.4

## Timeline

- 2026-09-21: disclosed

## References

- [https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2](https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2)
- [https://lists.apache.org/thread/dsr2ktf199mqhw2jtlbklyz7tzd86ycd](https://lists.apache.org/thread/dsr2ktf199mqhw2jtlbklyz7tzd86ycd)

## Related threats

- [Apache Neethi policy intersection exponential complexity denial of service](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-91866-a-specially-crafted-pair-of-ws-policy-documents-can-force-neethi)
- [Apache Neethi exponential policy expansion denial of service](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-91865-a-small-ws-policy-document-using-repeated-policy-references-can)
- [Apache Neethi heap exhaustion in WS-Policy processing](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-91864-a-specially-crafted-ws-policy-document-can-pack-unlimited-content)
- [Apache Neethi stack exhaustion via deeply nested WS-Policy elements](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-91863-a-specially-crafted-ws-policy-document-with-deeply-nested-policy)
- [Apache Neethi does not impose any restrictions on URIs when manually fetching remote policy references through the…](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-42404-apache-neethi-doesn-t-impose-any-restrictions-on-uris-when)