c3p0 CVE-2026-27830

c3p0, a JDBC Connection pooling library, is vulnerable to attack via maliciously crafted Java-serialized objects and javax.naming.Reference instances. Several c3p0 ConnectionPoolDataSource implementations have a property called userOverridesAsString which conceptually represents a Map<String,Map<String,String>>. Prior to v0.12.0, that property was maintained as a hex-encoded serialized object. Any attacker able to reset this property, on an existing ConnectionPoolDataSource or via maliciously crafted serialized objects or javax.naming.Reference instances could be tailored execute unexpected code on the application's CLASSPATH. The danger of this vulnerability was strongly magnified by vulnerabilities in c3p0's main dependency, mchange-commons-java. This library includes code that mirrors early implementations of JNDI functionality, including ungated support for remote factoryClassLocation values. Attackers could set c3p0's userOverridesAsString hex-encoded serialized objects that include objects "indirectly serialized" via JNDI references. Deserialization of those objects and dereferencing of the embedded javax.naming.Reference objects could provoke download and execution of malicious code from a remote factoryClassLocation. Although hazard presented by c3p0's vulnerabilites are exarcerbated by vulnerabilities in mchange-commons-java, use of Java-serialized-object hex as the format for a writable Java-Bean property, of objects that may be exposed across JNDI interfaces, represents a serious independent fragility. The userOverridesAsString property of c3p0 ConnectionPoolDataSource classes has been reimplemented to use a safe CSV-based format, rather than rely upon potentially dangerous Java object deserialization. c3p0-0.12.0+ and above depend upon mchange-commons-java 0.4.0+, which gates support for remote factoryClassLocation values by configuration parameters that default to restrictive values. c3p0 additionally enforces the new mchange-commons-java com.mchange.v2.naming.nameGuardClassName to prevent injection of unexpected, potentially remote JNDI names. There is no supported workaround for versions of c3p0 prior to 0.12.0.

c3p0 (the swaldman/c3p0 JDBC connection-pooling library) in all versions prior to 0.12.0 is affected, including its bundled/transitive use of mchange-commons-java prior to 0.4.0. Red Hat ships c3p0 within multiple products and has published errata RHSA-2026:18054, RHSA-2026:18055, RHSA-2026:18059, RHSA-2026:28385, RHSA-2026:3890 and RHSA-2026:4285, tracked via Bugzilla 2442908 and the Red Hat CVE page (https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-27830) and VEX feed. The authoritative advisory is GitHub GHSA-5476-xc4j-rqcv (https://github.com/swaldman/c3p0/security/advisories/GHSA-5476-xc4j-rqcv) with vendor security notes at https://www.mchange.com/projects/c3p0/#security-note. No CPE strings were provided in the input, so exact platform CPE ranges should be confirmed against NVD.