Severity: moderate
Affected versions:
- Apache Camel (org.apache.camel:camel-docling) 4.15.0 before 4.18.3
Description:
Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument
Injection') vulnerability in Apache Camel Docling component.
The camel-docling component invokes the external `docling` command-line tool by
assembling an argument list in DoclingProducer and executing it through
java.lang.ProcessBuilder. Custom CLI arguments supplied through the
`CamelDoclingCustomArguments` exchange header (a List<String>) were appended to
that argument list with insufficient validation: the original implementation
relied on a denylist of disallowed flags and only rejected path values that
contained a literal `../` sequence. As a result, a Camel route that forwards
externally-influenced data into the `CamelDoclingCustomArguments` header (or
into the path-bearing headers used to build the invocation) could cause the
producer to pass unrecognized or unintended `docling` CLI flags to the
subprocess, and could supply path-like argument values that resolved outside
the intended directory through traversal sequences not caught by the literal
`../` check. Because Camel itself builds the `docling` invocation from these
values, the component is responsible for constraining them, and the weak
validation allowed CLI-argument injection and directory traversal in the
arguments passed to the external tool. The invocation uses the list-based form
of ProcessBuilder, so a shell does not interpret the argument values; OS
command injection through shell metacharacters was not possible, and the
metacharacter rejection added by the fix is defense-in-depth.
This issue affects Apache Camel: from 4.15.0 before 4.18.3.
Users are recommended to upgrade to a release that contains the CAMEL-23212
fix. On the mainline the fix is included from Apache Camel 4.19.0 (and later
releases such as 4.20.0). For users on the 4.18.x LTS releases stream, upgrade
to 4.18.3. The fix replaces the denylist with a strict allowlist of recognized
`docling` CLI flags (rejecting any unrecognized flag, and rejecting
producer-managed flags such as the output-directory flags), defensively rejects
shell metacharacters in argument values, and normalizes path-like values with
Path.normalize() before validating them so that traversal sequences which
bypass a literal `../` check are detected. As defence in depth, route authors
should avoid mapping untrusted message content into the
`CamelDoclingCustomArguments` header and the path-bearing headers, and should
strip Camel-internal headers from messages that arrive from untrusted producers.
Credit:
Andrea Cosentino from Apache Software Foundation (finder)
Andrea Cosentino from Apache Software Foundation (remediation developer)
References:
https://camel.apache.org/security/CVE-2026-40047.html
https://camel.apache.org/
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-40047
