CVE-2026-49268 Apache Shiro: LDAP DN Injection in DefaultLdapRealm
Remote attackers can bypass authentication or impersonate users by injecting LDAP special characters into the DN construction in Apache Shiro's DefaultLdapRealm.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-49268?
CVE-2026-49268 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Apache Shiro, published on 17 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A remote attacker can inject LDAP special characters into the Distinguished Name (DN) construction in DefaultLdapRealm class. User-supplied username input is directly concatenated into the LDAP DN template without any escaping of RFC 2253 special characters. This allows an attacker to manipulate the DN structure used for LDAP bind authentication, potentially bypassing authentication or impersonating other users.
This issue affects all Apache Shiro versions through 2.2.0, and 3.0.0-alpha-1 when using DefaultLdapRealm Upgrade to Apache Shiro 2.2.1 or 3.0.0-alpha-2 or later, which fixes the issue.
Weakness: CWE-90
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-49268?
4 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.apache.shiro:shiro-core. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
org.apache.shiro:shiro-core Maven | All versions | 2.2.1 |
org.apache.shiro:shiro-core Maven | All versions | 2.2.1 |
org.apache.shiro:shiro-core Maven | From 3.0.0-alpha-0 | 3.0.0-alpha-2 |
org.apache.shiro:shiro-core Maven | From 3.0.0-alpha-0 | 3.0.0-alpha-2 |
Products include Apache Shiro.
How do I fix CVE-2026-49268?
Upgrade org.apache.shiro:shiro-core to a fixed version for your release line: 2.2.1 or 3.0.0-alpha-2.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2026-49268 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-49268 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Public exploit code: 2 proofs of concept on GitHub.
Other vulnerabilities in Apache Shiro
- CVE-2023-34478 Path Traversal in Apache Shiro
- CVE-2022-40664 Authentication Bypass Vulnerability in Shiro when forwarding or including via RequestDispatcher
- CVE-2022-32532 Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
- CVE-2021-41303 Apache Shiro vulnerable to a specially crafted HTTP request causing an authentication bypass
- CVE-2020-17523 Authentication bypass in Apache Shiro
Sources
Also known as CLEANSTART-2026-FA74097, CLEANSTART-2026-LY45593, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-49268, ECHO-985f-7fd1-0025, GHSA-x96m-rh44-vgv8, MINI-233j-5pg3-fr3v and 24 more.