Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in JPA Server in HAPI FHIR

published 2021-05-10 5y ago modified 2026-06-17 4mo ago also GHSA-67f6-c8mx-4q2m , EUVD-2021-1274

cvss: 5.3; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 1.6%; EPSS 1.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 75%
public exploits: 0; none known

JPA Server in HAPI FHIR before 5.4.0 allows a user to deny service (e.g., disable access to the database after the attack stops) via history requests. This occurs because of a SELECT COUNT statement that requires a full index scan, with an accompanying large amount of server resources if there are many simultaneous history requests.

Patch / fix

fixed in 2 links 1

maven ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:hapi-fhir-jpaserver-base 5.4.0
fhir hapi_fhir 5.4.0

github.com/hapifhir/hapi-fhir#2642 pull request

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Exploit prediction

1.59% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 75% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	5.3	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
NVD	2.0	5.0	AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
GitHub	3.1	5.3	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
maven	ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:hapi-fhir-jpaserver-base	<5.4.0	5.4.0

Classification

Weakness

CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

References

github.com /hapifhir/hapi-fhir/pull/2642
web, patch, third-party-advisory
hapifhir.io
web, vendor-advisory
github.com /hapifhir/hapi-fhir/issues/2641
web, third-party-advisory
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2021-32053
advisory

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.