CVE-2026-41726: In Spring for Apache Kafka, unbounded delegate cache keyed on user-controlled, potentially malicious selector header

June 10, 2026 (updated June 12, 2026)

When an application opts into DelegatingDeserializer, a producer can grow the consumer’s heap without bound by sending records with unique random spring.kafka.serialization.selector header values, eventually causing GC thrash and OutOfMemoryError.

Affected versions: Spring for Apache Kafka 4.0.0 through 4.0.5; 3.3.0 through 3.3.15; 3.2.0 through 3.2.13; 2.9.0 through 2.9.13; 2.8.0 through 2.8.11.

References

github.com/advisories/GHSA-xvfq-4q6q-gxx7
github.com/spring-projects/spring-kafka/commit/ca2337ba789c5778a10197bda17a62915247ff6c
github.com/spring-projects/spring-kafka/issues/4489
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41726
spring.io/security/cve-2026-41726

Code Behaviors & Features

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