CVE-2025-14969
📋 TL;DR
A vulnerability in Hibernate Reactive allows remote attackers to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by prematurely closing HTTP connections during database operations. This leaks connections from the database connection pool, potentially exhausting available connections. Systems using Hibernate Reactive with HTTP endpoints exposed for database operations are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Hibernate Reactive
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete database connection pool exhaustion leading to application unavailability for all users until connections are manually reset or the application is restarted.
Likely Case
Degraded application performance and intermittent connection failures as the connection pool becomes partially exhausted.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper connection pool monitoring, size limits, and connection timeout configurations in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires the ability to send HTTP requests to vulnerable endpoints and prematurely close connections, which is trivial with standard HTTP clients.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Check Red Hat advisory RHSA-2026:1965 for specific patched versions
Vendor Advisory: https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:1965
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Review Red Hat advisory RHSA-2026:1965. 2. Update Hibernate Reactive to the patched version specified in the advisory. 3. Restart the application to apply the fix.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement Connection Timeout
allConfigure shorter connection timeouts to prevent connections from being held indefinitely when clients disconnect prematurely.
Configure in application properties: hibernate.connection.timeout=30
Limit Connection Pool Size
allSet maximum connection pool size to prevent complete exhaustion and enable monitoring of connection usage.
Configure in application properties: hibernate.connection.pool.max_size=50
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement network-level controls to restrict access to HTTP endpoints performing database operations to trusted sources only.
- Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rate limiting and abnormal connection pattern detection to block exploitation attempts.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if your application uses Hibernate Reactive with HTTP endpoints for database operations and review version against Red Hat advisory.Check Version:
Check application dependencies or build configuration for Hibernate Reactive version.Verify Fix Applied:
After patching, test by attempting to prematurely close HTTP connections during database operations and monitor connection pool metrics for leaks.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Increased frequency of database connection errors
- Connection pool exhaustion warnings in application logs
- Abnormal HTTP connection closures during database operations
Network Indicators:
- Multiple HTTP requests to database endpoints with abrupt connection terminations
- Unusual patterns of incomplete HTTP transactions
SIEM Query:
source="application_logs" AND ("connection pool exhausted" OR "database connection error")