Bug 2568320 (CVE-2026-90436)

Summary: CVE-2026-90436 axis/axis: Apache Axis: Remote code execution via insecure deserialization of SOAP fault messages
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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A flaw was found in Apache Axis. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit an insecure deserialization issue by sending a specially crafted Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) fault message. Because the message is parsed and classes are instantiated before authentication handlers are evaluated, an attacker can achieve arbitrary code execution if a suitable class is present on the application's classpath.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-11-06 15:51:57 UTC 
** UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED ** Deserialization of an inbound SOAP fault in Apache Axis 1.x allows unauthenticated remote class instantiation. When a SOAP <Fault> carries a <detail><exceptionName> element, Axis loads the named class and, if a String <data> element is also present, instantiates it through its String constructor before checking that it is an AxisFault. Loading alone runs the class's static initializer. With a suitable class on the application's classpath this leads to remote code execution. The fault is parsed while the engine resolves the target service, before any per-service handler chain runs, so authentication handlers configured on a service do not protect against it. This affects all Apache Axis 1.x versions through 1.4.



As Axis 1 has been EOL we recommend you migrate to a different SOAP engine, such as Apache Axis 2/Java. Alternatively you could use a build of Axis with the patch from https://github.com/apache/axis-axis1-java/commit/41f3b4e8d04e310ca81f86b92630ab2c11d608bd applied. The Apache Axis project does not expect to create an Axis 1.x release fixing this problem.