CVE-2026-89238 Apache WSS4J: WSS4J EncryptedHeader child confusion causing wrong protected-header selection
Attackers can bypass security policies by confusing encrypted header selection in Apache WSS4J, compromising confidentiality coverage.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-89238?
CVE-2026-89238 is a critical vulnerability in Apache WSS4J, published on 30 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
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.
Weakness: CWE-345
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89238?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Apache Wss4j.
How do I fix CVE-2026-89238?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-89238 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2026-89238 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89238 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Apache WSS4J
- CVE-2026-88920 Apache WSS4J: SAML Sender-Vouches Authentication Bypass
- CVE-2026-87830 Apache WSS4J: Streaming WS-SecurityPolicy validation may skip element-protection checks.
- CVE-2026-85532 Apache WSS4J: Insufficient Validation of Derived-Key Parameters
- CVE-2026-92121 Apache WSS4J: WS-SecurityPolicy signature checks skipped in the streaming code after an STR-Transform reference
- CVE-2026-95616 Apache WSS4J: Unauthenticated denial of service via integer overflow in DER parsing of X.509 certificate extensions
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89238, GHSA-wm7f-562f-9g52, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89238.