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Fencer Intel
critical 9.1

CVE-2026-89238 json

Apache WSS4J: WSS4J EncryptedHeader child confusion causing wrong protected-header selection

published last mo. modified last mo. also EUVD-2026-89794

cvss
9.1
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 26%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

WSS4J EncryptedHeader child confusion could promote an attacker-controlled plaintext element as the decrypted header, leading to incorrect confidentiality coverage and possible policy bypass. Users are recommended to upgrade to versions 4.0.2 or 3.0.6 or 2.4.4, which fix this issue.

Patch / fix

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache WSS4J 2.4.4, 3.0.6, 4.0.2

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-89238 updated cvss 6.5

wss4j: Apache WSS4J: Security policy bypass via encrypted header confusion

  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7 wss4j-ws-security-dom Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 8 wss4j-ws-security-dom Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Expansion Pack wss4j-ws-security-dom
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
last mo.

Exploit prediction

0.33% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 26% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 9.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
CNA 3.1 9.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Affected products

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache WSS4J

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-345 Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity

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.