Impact:
A single record is enough. The affected StreamThread stops processing, and because the record stays in the topic the hang returns on restart; an application whose partitions are all affected becomes unresponsive. Only the Streams application is affected, not the brokers or the cluster. Triggering it needs write access to a source topic whose topology uses stream-time punctuation, and a broker that stores the record: brokers from Apache Kafka 4.0.0 reject such a timestamp by default (log.message.timestamp.after.max.ms, one hour), so it is reachable only on older brokers or where that bound has been relaxed.
Mitigation:
Upgrade Kafka Streams to 4.2.2, 4.3.2, or 4.4.0. As defense in depth, keep log.message.timestamp.after.max.ms bounded on source topics and restrict write access to them.
Resolution:
From Apache Kafka 4.2.2, 4.3.2, and 4.4.0: the next punctuation time is computed with overflow-checked arithmetic (clamped to Long.MAX_VALUE), and a rescheduled punctuation is re-queued only when its time moves forward.
Analysis
Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
| Vendor | Product | Default status | Versions | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache Software Foundation | Apache Kafka | unaffected |
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No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record.
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Tracking
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| Link | Providers |
|---|---|
| https://kafka.apache.org/cve-list |
|
Wed, 28 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Kafka Streams derives its stream-time clock from record timestamps. PunctuationSchedule.next() computed the next punctuation time as timestamp + (intervalsMissed + 1) * interval with no overflow check. A record with a timestamp at or near Long.MAX_VALUE advances stream time to that value, so the next stream-time punctuation overflows to a negative time. PunctuationQueue then re-queues that time and loops on it indefinitely while holding a lock, stalling the StreamThread. Impact: A single record is enough. The affected StreamThread stops processing, and because the record stays in the topic the hang returns on restart; an application whose partitions are all affected becomes unresponsive. Only the Streams application is affected, not the brokers or the cluster. Triggering it needs write access to a source topic whose topology uses stream-time punctuation, and a broker that stores the record: brokers from Apache Kafka 4.0.0 reject such a timestamp by default (log.message.timestamp.after.max.ms, one hour), so it is reachable only on older brokers or where that bound has been relaxed. Mitigation: Upgrade Kafka Streams to 4.2.2, 4.3.2, or 4.4.0. As defense in depth, keep log.message.timestamp.after.max.ms bounded on source topics and restrict write access to them. Resolution: From Apache Kafka 4.2.2, 4.3.2, and 4.4.0: the next punctuation time is computed with overflow-checked arithmetic (clamped to Long.MAX_VALUE), and a rescheduled punctuation is re-queued only when its time moves forward. | |
| Title | Apache Kafka: Kafka Streams StreamThread hang from integer overflow in stream-time punctuation | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-190 CWE-835 |
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| References |
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Subscriptions
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MITRE
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: apache
Published:
Updated: 2026-10-28T16:45:08.114Z
Reserved: 2026-10-16T09:55:02.432Z
Link: CVE-2026-111496
Vulnrichment
No data.
NVD
Status : Received
Published: 2026-10-28T17:17:39.693
Modified: 2026-10-28T17:17:39.693
Link: CVE-2026-111496
Redhat
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
Updated: 2026-10-28T18:30:15Z