Skip to content
Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2026-81875 json

HAPI FHIR: SHCParser unbounded DEFLATE decompression causes denial of service

published last mo. modified last mo. also EUVD-2026-80993 , GHSA-3w98-rrpr-fprr

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 50%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

HAPI FHIR is a complete implementation of the HL7 FHIR standard for healthcare interoperability in Java. Prior to version 6.9.12, SHCParser in org.hl7.fhir.r5/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/r5/elementmodel/SHCParser.java can consume attacker-controlled Smart Health Card JWT content whose header contains zip: "DEF" and whose small raw-DEFLATE payload expands to a very large value. SHCParser.decodeJWT() passes the decoded payload to SHCParser.inflate(), which accumulates all decompressed bytes in a ByteArrayOutputStream without an output-size limit before JSON parsing, and SHCParser.decompress() contains the same unbounded pattern. An application or validator service that accepts attacker-supplied SHC content can therefore suffer excessive heap allocation, severe garbage-collection pressure, request failure, process instability, or process termination. This issue is fixed in version 6.9.12.

Patch / fix

  • maven ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r5 6.9.12
  • maven ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.validation 6.9.12
  • ca.uhn.hapi.fhir org.hl7.fhir.core 6.9.12
  • hapifhir hl7_fhir_core 6.9.12

Is CVE-2026-81875 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
last mo.

Exploit prediction

0.63% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 50% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/hapifhir/org.hl7.fhir.core/security/advisories/GHSA-3w98-rrpr-fprr referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r5
<6.9.12
6.9.12
maven ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.validation
<6.9.12
6.9.12
maven ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.validation.cli
<=5.0.0
 no fix listed

Affected products

  • hapifhir org.hl7.fhir.core

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation
  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
  • CWE-409 Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification)

References

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.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.