Apache Neethi versions prior to 3.2.2 do not properly detect circular references in WS-Policy documents. This flaw can cause the policy normalization process to enter an infinite loop or excessive recursion, resulting in a stack overflow or application hang. An attacker can exploit this by crafting malicious policy documents with circular references, leading to a denial of service (DoS) condition. The issue is fixed in version 3.2.2.