CVE-2025-68161
December 18, 2025
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.
Affected Packages
https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=rel/2.0 <rel/2.25.3Fix Suggestion:
Update to version rel/2.25.3org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=2.0-beta9 <2.25.3Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 2.25.3org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core (JAVA_ARCHIVE_BY_JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=2.0-beta9 <2.25.3Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 2.25.3Related Resources (12)
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Contact UsCVSS v4
Base Score:
6.3
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Attack Requirements
NONE
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Vulnerable System Confidentiality
LOW
Vulnerable System Integrity
NONE
Vulnerable System Availability
NONE
Subsequent System Confidentiality
NONE
Subsequent System Integrity
LOW
Subsequent System Availability
NONE
CVSS v3
Base Score:
4
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
NONE
Availability
NONE
Weakness Type (CWE)
EPSS
Base Score:
0.28