Description

Hibernate Validator before 6.2.0 and 7.0.0, by default and depending how it is used, may interpolate user-supplied input in a constraint violation message with Expression Language. This could allow an attacker to access sensitive information or execute arbitrary Java code. Hibernate Validator as of 6.2.0 and 7.0.0 no longer interpolates custom constraint violation messages with Expression Language and strongly recommends not allowing user-supplied input in constraint violation messages. CVE-2020-5245 and CVE-2025-4428 are examples of related, downstream vulnerabilities involving Expression Language intepolation of user-supplied data.

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2025-35036

CVSS Base Severity: HIGH

CVSS Base Score: 7.3

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Affected Products

Vendor: Hibernate

Product: Hibernate Validator

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.06% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 19.12% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-06-06 (when was this score calculated)

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-35036
https://hibernate.org/validator/documentation/migration-guide/#6-2-0-cr1
https://in.relation.to/2021/01/06/hibernate-validator-700-62-final-released/#expression-language
https://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/stable/validator/reference/en-US/html_single/#section-hibernateconstraintvalidatorcontext
https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/HV-1816
https://github.com/hibernate/hibernate-validator/compare/6.1.7.Final...6.2.0.Final
https://github.com/hibernate/hibernate-validator/commit/05f795bb7cf18856004f40e5042709e550ed0d6e
https://github.com/hibernate/hibernate-validator/commit/254858d9dcc4e7cd775d1b0f47f482218077c5e1
https://github.com/hibernate/hibernate-validator/commit/e076293b0ee1bfa97b6e67d05ad9eee1ad77e893
https://labs.watchtowr.com/expression-payloads-meet-mayhem-cve-2025-4427-and-cve-2025-4428/
https://github.com/hibernate/hibernate-validator/commit/d2db40b9e7d22c7a0b44d7665242dfc7b4d14d78
https://github.com/hibernate/hibernate-validator/pull/1138
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-4428
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-5245

Timeline