# CVE-2026-94449: SmallRye Fault Tolerance memory leak in ApplyGuard annotation

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-94449-a-flaw-was-found-in-the-smallrye-fault-tolerance-library-which-is  
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-2026-94449 · Severity: high · CVSS 7.5 · Published 2026-09-21

SmallRye Fault Tolerance is a library used by Quarkus microservices to manage retries and circuit breakers. A memory leak in the ApplyGuard and ApplyFaultTolerance annotations causes internal tracking objects to accumulate without being released, eventually exhausting memory and crashing the application. An attacker can remotely trigger this leak without authentication to cause a denial of service.

Technologies: [Red Hat Quarkus](https://junglewise.ai/threats/technologies/red-hat-quarkus). Vendors: [Red Hat](https://junglewise.ai/threats/vendors/red-hat).

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-94449 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-94449 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-94449?** High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.5, published 21 September 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** SmallRye Fault Tolerance; Red Hat Quarkus.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-94449?** 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-2026-94449 attacked?** It is attacked over the network, in a software library.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-94449?** Check whether you run Red Hat Quarkus or SmallRye Fault Tolerance. 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

The vulnerability is a resource exhaustion flaw (CWE-400) in SmallRye Fault Tolerance where internal metrics-related objects are not released during programmatic guard invocations. This causes steady memory consumption growth with each request when using ApplyGuard or ApplyFaultTolerance annotations. The flaw can be exploited remotely without authentication or user interaction to exhaust heap memory and crash the application.

## Affected products

- SmallRye Fault Tolerance
- Red Hat Quarkus

## Timeline

- 2026-09-21: disclosed

## References

- [https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/](https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/)
- [https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-94449](https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-94449)

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