CVE-2017-5656 Session Fixation in Apache CXF

What is CVE-2017-5656?

CVE-2017-5656 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Apache Cxf, published on 18 Apr 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Apache CXF's STSClient before 3.1.11 and 3.0.13 uses a flawed way of caching tokens that are associated with delegation tokens, which means that an attacker could craft a token which would return an identifer corresponding to a cached token for another user.

Weakness: CWE-384

Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-5656?

4 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.apache.cxf:cxf-core. It affects 1 product.

Products include Apache Cxf.

How do I fix CVE-2017-5656?

Upgrade org.apache.cxf:cxf-core to a fixed version for your release line: 3.0.13 or 3.1.11.

Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.

Is CVE-2017-5656 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-5656 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Apache Cxf

• CVE-2012-2379 XML Signature/Encryption Not Validated in Apache CXF Critical 10.0
• CVE-2026-66909 Apache CXF: Unsafe deserialization of inbound JMS ObjectMessage Critical 9.8
• CVE-2026-68079 Apache CXF: DefaultEncryptingCodeDataProvider allows unlimited authorization code replay Critical 9.8
• CVE-2026-50628 Apache CXF: OAuth2: Inverted IP Binding Check Defeats Security Control Critical 9.8
• CVE-2025-48913 Apache CXF: Untrusted JMS configuration can lead to RCE Critical 9.8

All Apache Cxf vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-v936-x3j5-c76j.