In Spring for Apache Kafka, unbounded delegate cache keyed on user-controlled, potentially malicious selector header

MEDIUM | JUNE 09, 2026 | CVE-2026-41726

Description

When an application opts into DelegatingDeserializer, a producer can grow the consumer's heap without bound by sending records with unique random spring.kafka.serialization.selector header values, eventually causing GC thrash and OutOfMemoryError. Only deployments that explicitly configured DelegatingDeserializer are affected.

Affected Spring Products and Versions

Spring for Apache Kafka:

  • 4.0.0 - 4.0.5
  • 3.3.0 - 3.3.15
  • 3.2.0 - 3.2.13
  • 2.9.0 - 2.9.13
  • 2.8.11 and earlier

Mitigation

Users of affected versions should upgrade to the corresponding fixed version.
Fix versionAvailability
4.0.6OSS
4.0.5.1Enterprise Support Only
3.3.16OSS
3.3.15.1Enterprise Support Only
3.2.14Enterprise Support Only
2.9.14Enterprise Support Only
2.8.12Enterprise Support Only

No further mitigation steps are necessary.

Credit

This issue was discovered internally.

History

  • 2026-06-09: Initial vulnerability report published.

Get ahead

VMware offers training and certification to turbo-charge your progress.

Learn more

Get support

Tanzu Spring offers support and binaries for OpenJDK™, Spring, and Apache Tomcat® in one simple subscription.

Learn more

Upcoming events

Check out all the upcoming events in the Spring community.

View all