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CriticalPublic exploit

Host Header Injection in Undertow HTTP Server Core

IdentifiersCVE-2025-12543CWE-20· Improper Input Validation

CVE-2025-12543 is a critical input validation flaw in the Undertow HTTP server core used by WildFly, JBoss EAP, and other Java applications. Undertow fails to properly validate the HTTP Host header in incoming requests and accepts malformed or attacker-controlled Host values instead of rejecting them. This creates a Host header injection condition in which application logic, generated links, cache keys, or downstream components may trust and process unvalidated host information. Reported abuse scenarios include web cache poisoning, SSRF-style/internal network reconnaissance, and session hijacking. The issue is described as remotely exploitable without authentication, and affected deployments include Undertow-based applications and platform distributions such as WildFly and JBoss EAP that embed vulnerable Undertow components.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation can compromise confidentiality and integrity. An attacker may poison application or intermediary caches, causing users to receive attacker-influenced content; manipulate host-dependent behavior to facilitate session hijacking or credential theft; and leverage the server's handling of crafted requests for SSRF-style access or internal network scanning of otherwise unreachable services. In affected enterprise deployments, this can lead to unauthorized access to internal systems, account compromise, and broader trust-boundary violations across reverse proxies, caches, and application tiers.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If patching cannot be performed immediately, enforce strict Host header validation at the edge using a reverse proxy, load balancer, or WAF with an allowlist of expected hostnames. Reject malformed Host headers, multiple Host headers, and values that do not match the deployment's canonical hostnames. Restrict direct access to Undertow so it is reachable only through trusted front-end infrastructure. Where Host influences content selection or cache keys, disable or tightly limit caching until fixes are applied, and invalidate potentially poisoned caches. Monitor HTTP request logs for anomalous Host header values and investigate suspicious requests.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply the vendor-provided fixes for affected Undertow-based products. The content indicates Red Hat released patches on 2026-01-08 via RHSA-2026:0386 and RHSA-2026:0383 for affected JBoss EAP 8.1-related components, including eap8-undertow and eap8-wildfly. More generally, upgrade Undertow to a fixed release, or apply the corresponding WildFly/JBoss EAP platform update that includes the patched undertow-core dependency, then redeploy affected applications. Because no alternative mitigation meeting vendor security criteria is noted, prompt patching is the primary remediation.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No valid public exploits. Mallory filtered out 1 candidate as fakes, detection scripts, or README-only repos.

VALID 0 / 1 TOTALView more in app

All candidate exploits were filtered out by Mallory's validation.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
Red HatBuild Of Apache Camelapplication
Red HatData Gridapplication
Red HatFuseapplication
Red HatJboss Enterprise Application Platformapplication
Red HatJboss Enterprise Application Platform Expansion Packapplication
Red HatProcess Automationapplication
Red HatSingle Sign-Onapplication
Red HatUndertowapplication

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What this page doesn’t show

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Threat actor evidence

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Associated malware

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Detection signatures

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Vendor-by-vendor mapping

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Social activity14

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