GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Maven

GHSA-vc5p-v9hr-52mj Apache Log4j does not verify the TLS hostname in its Socket Appender

MEDIUM Published 2025-12-18 Modified 2025-12-19 Official page ↗
Aliases
CVE-2025-68161
Ecosystem
Maven
Packages
org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core
Severity
Moderate
CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N
Weaknesses
CWE-297
Reviewed
2025-12-19

Affected packages

• Maven org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core: >= 2.0-beta9, < 2.25.3 → fixed in 2.25.3

Description

The Socket Appender in Apache Log4j Core versions 2.0-beta9 through 2.25.2 does not perform TLS hostname verification of the peer certificate, even when the verifyHostName configuration attribute or the log4j2.sslVerifyHostName system property is set to true. This issue may allow a man-in-the-middle attacker to intercept or redirect log traffic under the following conditions: • The attacker is able to intercept or redirect network traffic between the client and the log receiver. • The attacker can present a server certificate issued by a certification authority trusted by the Socket Appender’s configured trust store (or by the default Java trust store if no custom trust store is configured). Users are advised to upgrade to Apache Log4j Core version 2.25.3, which addresses this issue. As an alternative mitigation, the Socket Appender may be configured to use a private or restricted trust root to limit the set of trusted certificates.

Related

Alias · CVE (1)

  • CVE-2025-68161 The Socket Appender in Apache Log4j Core versions 2.0-beta9 through 2.25.2 does not perform TLS hostname verification of the peer… vulnerability

Weakness · CWE (1)

  • CWE-297 Improper Validation of Certificate with Host Mismatch weakness

References