CVE-2025-68161
Apache Log4j Core: Missing TLS hostname verification in Socket appender
Severity Score
Exploit Likelihood
Affected Versions
Public Exploits
0Exploited in Wild
-Decision
Descriptions
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 https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/appenders/network.html#SslConfiguration-attr-verifyHostName configuration attribute or the log4j2.sslVerifyHostName https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/systemproperties.html#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.
These are all security issues fixed in the log4j-2.20.0-1.1 package on the GA media of openSUSE Tumbleweed.
CVSS Scores
SSVC
- Decision:Track
Timeline
- 2025-12-16 CVE Reserved
- 2025-12-18 CVE Published
- 2026-01-20 CVE Updated
- 2026-03-04 EPSS Updated
- ---------- Exploited in Wild
- ---------- KEV Due Date
- ---------- First Exploit
CWE
- CWE-297: Improper Validation of Certificate with Host Mismatch
CAPEC
References (7)
| URL | Date | SRC |
|---|
| URL | Date | SRC |
|---|---|---|
| https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/pull/4002 | 2025-12-18 |
| URL | Date | SRC |
|---|---|---|
| https://lists.apache.org/thread/xr33kyxq3sl67lwb61ggvm1fzc8k7dvx | 2025-12-18 | |
| https://logging.apache.org/cyclonedx/vdr.xml | 2025-12-18 | |
| https://logging.apache.org/security.html#CVE-2025-68161 | 2025-12-18 |
Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions
| Vendor | Product | Version | Other | Status | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Product | Version | Other | Status | <-- --> | Vendor | Product | Version | Other | Status |
| Apache Search vendor "Apache" | Log4j Search vendor "Apache" for product "Log4j" | * | - |
Affected
| ||||||
| Canonical Search vendor "Canonical" | Ubuntu Linux Search vendor "Canonical" for product "Ubuntu Linux" | * | - |
Affected
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| Centos Search vendor "Centos" | Centos Search vendor "Centos" for product "Centos" | * | - |
Affected
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| Debian Search vendor "Debian" | Debian Linux Search vendor "Debian" for product "Debian Linux" | * | - |
Affected
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| Redhat Search vendor "Redhat" | Enterprise Linux Search vendor "Redhat" for product "Enterprise Linux" | * | - |
Affected
| ||||||
