Severity:
CVSS 3.1: 5.4 (medium) CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
Affected versions:
- Apache Camel (org.apache.camel:camel-docling) 4.15.0 before 4.18.5
- Apache Camel (org.apache.camel:camel-docling) 4.19.0 before 4.22.2
Description:
Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
vulnerability in Apache Camel Docling component.
This issue affects Apache Camel: from 4.15.0 before 4.18.5, from 4.19.0 before
4.22.2.
DoclingProducer builds the command line of the external docling tool and
appends to it the custom arguments supplied in the CamelDoclingCustomArguments
header, a list of strings whose flags the fix for CVE-2026-40047 restricted to
an allowlist. That fix also introduced validatePathSafety to keep path-like
argument values inside the intended directory, but the method only looked for
relative traversal: it rejected a value containing a traversal sequence such as
../ and a value whose normalized form still held a .. element. It never checked
whether a value was an absolute path, and an absolute path without traversal
segments contains neither, so it passed unchanged. Every path-like value went
through this check, whether it was a separate list element following its flag
or was attached to the flag after an equals sign, so an absolute path was
accepted in either form, for example as the directory given to the allowlisted
--artifacts-path flag, which tells docling where to find its model artifacts.
Such a value reached the docling command line as given, so a party able to
choose the custom arguments could point the docling process at any directory
the Camel process can access, outside the working directory that the check was
meant to keep path values in, which is the outcome the CVE-2026-40047 fix set
out to prevent. Only the CLI mode, which is the default, passes custom
arguments to docling. The header belongs to the Camel header namespace, which
consumers applying Camel's default header filtering, such as the JMS and Kafka
consumers, remove from incoming messages, so the issue is reached where a route
forwards externally influenced values into the header or where a consumer maps
incoming headers without that filtering.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.23.0, which fixes the issue. If
users are on the 4.22.x releases stream, then they are suggested to upgrade to
4.22.2. If users are on the 4.18.x releases stream, then they are suggested to
upgrade to 4.18.5. The 4.15.x to 4.17.x and 4.19.x to 4.21.x release lines
reached end of life before this issue was resolved and will not receive a fix,
so deployments on them must move to a supported release. For deployments that
cannot upgrade immediately, do not build the CamelDoclingCustomArguments header
from values that originate outside the deployment, remove that header from
messages that arrive from outside before they reach a docling endpoint, and
make sure that consumers which map incoming message headers drop the Camel
header namespace, so that only the route itself chooses the custom arguments.
Solution:
Upgrade to Apache Camel 4.23.0, which fixes the issue. Users on the 4.22.x
stream should upgrade to 4.22.2 and users on the 4.18.x stream should upgrade
to 4.18.5. The validatePathSafety helper now also rejects a path-like
custom-argument value that is an absolute path, whether it is given as a
separate list element or attached to its flag, so every path-valued flag on the
allowlist is covered; a relative value without traversal segments is still
accepted. The 4.15.x to 4.17.x and 4.19.x to 4.21.x release lines reached end
of life before this issue was resolved and will not receive a fix, so
deployments on them must move to a supported release.
Work Arounds:
Do not build the CamelDoclingCustomArguments header from values that originate
outside the deployment, remove that header from messages that arrive from
outside before they reach a docling endpoint, and make sure that consumers
which map incoming message headers drop the Camel header namespace, so that
only the route itself chooses the custom arguments.
Credit:
Zhixi "Jace" Sun, independent security researcher (finder)
Andrea Cosentino (remediation developer)
References:
https://camel.apache.org/security/CVE-2026-95628.html
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CAMEL-24893
https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/26738
https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/26743
https://github.com/apache/camel/pull/26744
https://camel.apache.org/security/CVE-2026-40047.html
https://camel.apache.org/security/CVE-2026-78163.html
https://camel.apache.org/
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-95628
