CVE-2025-29891 - Bypass/Injection Vulnerability in Apache Camel—Details, Exploit, and How to Stay Safe

Published: June 2024
Severity: Medium–High
Affected Versions:

What is CVE-2025-29891?

A serious bypass/injection vulnerability has been found in multiple versions of Apache Camel, an extremely popular integration framework in the Java world. The flaw means that certain HTTP requests made to Camel-based web apps can override important internal headers, altering how the app behaves. In some cases, this could lead to code execution or privilege escalation.

How did this happen?

At the heart of the issue is Camel’s default incoming HTTP header filter. Normally, this filter blocks unexpected headers from outsiders. But, due to a bug, attackers can slip certain Camel-specific headers past the filter simply by using HTTP parameters (like ?CamelBeanMethod=exploit). Some Camel components (like camel-bean or camel-exec) will then perform sensitive actions, believing these headers to be trusted.

Why is this Vulnerability Important?

Attackers can slip malicious headers by sending special parameters in the URL or request body. Camel will mistake these parameters for trusted internal headers.

A typical route in Camel using the bean component might look like this

from("jetty:http://...:808/hello";)
    .to("bean:helloBean?method=sayHello");

Attack: An attacker sends a request like this

GET /hello?CamelBeanMethod=toString HTTP/1.1
Host: your-app.com

Result: Instead of calling sayHello, Camel could invoke the toString method on the target bean! In more complex setups (think with camel-exec or dynamic method exposure), this could be used to run arbitrary commands.

Vulnerable route

from("servlet:/process")
    .to("bean:businessLogicBean");

Malicious request

POST /process?CamelBeanMethod=runDangerousMethod HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
...

Now, if runDangerousMethod exists and does something sensitive, this will be executed!

org.apache.camel
camel-servlet
4.10.

Example for Maven

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.camel</groupId>
  <artifactId>camel-platform-http</artifactId>
  <version>4.10.2</version>
</dependency>

`java

from("jetty:http://...").filter(header("CamelBeanMethod").isNull())

.to("bean:safeBean");

`

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## Related Vulnerabilities

- CVE-2025-27636: Similar flaw, but originally only thought exploitable via custom HTTP headers.
- Now understood that parameters can be used too—making CVE-2025-29891 much easier to exploit.

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## References & More Information

- Apache Camel Security Advisories
- GitHub Issue / Patch for CVE-2025-29891 (when published)
- NVD Entry for CVE-2025-29891 (*to be updated*)

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## Conclusion

CVE-2025-29891 marks a major security flaw in Apache Camel when it’s used to build web APIs. If you’re running any of the affected versions and your Camel endpoints are accessible via the web, you need to patch now. Attackers can use this to bypass security by tacking on special parameters to their HTTP calls.

Immediate Steps:
1. Upgrade to the fixed version.
2. Don’t expose Camel directly to the Internet.
3. Review your route configurations and add defensive filtering.

Keeping your Camel instances updated and hardened is essential for safe integration!

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*This post was prepared exclusively, summarizing the latest findings for Apache Camel users—or anyone running mission-critical Java integrations.*

Timeline

Published on: 03/12/2025 15:15:40 UTC
Last modified on: 03/13/2025 09:15:14 UTC