CVE-2023-20860

Spring Framework running version 6.0.0 - 6.0.6 or 5.3.0 - 5.3.25 using "**" as a pattern in Spring Security configuration with the mvcRequestMatcher creates a mismatch in pattern matching between Spring Security and Spring MVC, and the potential for a security bypass.

Red Hat Lightwell has released org.springframework:spring-expression 5.3.18.rhlw-00010 with backported fixes for CVE-2023-20860, CVE-2025-41249, CVE-2024-38816, CVE-2024-22243, CVE-2024-38808, CVE-2023-20863, and CVE-2023-20861.

CVE-2023-20860: Spring Framework running version 6.0.0 - 6.0.6 or 5.3.0 - 5.3.25 using "**" as a pattern in Spring Security configuration with the mvcRequestMatcher creates a mismatch in pattern matching between Spring Security and Spring MVC, and the potential for a security bypass.

CVE-2025-41249: The Spring Framework annotation detection mechanism may not correctly resolve annotations on methods within type hierarchies with a parameterized super type with unbounded generics. This can be an issue if such annotations are used for authorization decisions.

Your application may be affected by this if you are using Spring Security's @EnableMethodSecurity feature.

You are not affected by this if you are not using @EnableMethodSecurity or if you do not use security annotations on methods in generic superclasses or generic interfaces.

This CVE is published in conjunction with CVE-2025-41248 https://spring.io/security/cve-2025-41248 .

CVE-2024-38816: Applications serving static resources through the functional web frameworks WebMvc.fn or WebFlux.fn are vulnerable to path traversal attacks. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests and obtain any file on the file system that is also accessible to the process in which the Spring application is running.

Specifically, an application is vulnerable when both of the following are true:

• the web application uses RouterFunctions to serve static resources
• resource handling is explicitly configured with a FileSystemResource location

However, malicious requests are blocked and rejected when any of the following is true:

• the Spring Security HTTP Firewall https://docs.spring.io/spring-security/reference/servlet/exploits/firewall.html  is in use
• the application runs on Tomcat or Jetty

CVE-2024-22243: Applications that use UriComponentsBuilder to parse an externally provided URL (e.g. through a query parameter) AND perform validation checks on the host of the parsed URL may be vulnerable to a open redirect https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/601.html  attack or to a SSRF attack if the URL is used after passing validation checks.

CVE-2024-38808: CVE-2024-38808: Spring Expression DoS Vulnerability

CVE-2023-20863: In spring framework versions prior to 5.2.24 release+ ,5.3.27+ and 6.0.8+ , it is possible for a user to provide a specially crafted SpEL expression that may cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition.

CVE-2023-20861: In Spring Framework versions 6.0.0 - 6.0.6, 5.3.0 - 5.3.25, 5.2.0.RELEASE - 5.2.22.RELEASE, and older unsupported versions, it is possible for a user to provide a specially crafted SpEL expression that may cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition.

This patched artifact is a drop-in replacement for org.springframework:spring-expression 5.3.18 from Maven Central.

Red Hat Lightwell has released org.springframework:spring-webmvc 5.3.18.rhlw-00010 with backported fixes for CVE-2023-20860, CVE-2024-38816, CVE-2024-38819, CVE-2024-38828, CVE-2025-41242, CVE-2026-22735, CVE-2026-22737, CVE-2026-22741, and CVE-2026-22745.

CVE-2023-20860: Spring Framework running version 6.0.0 - 6.0.6 or 5.3.0 - 5.3.25 using "**" as a pattern in Spring Security configuration with the mvcRequestMatcher creates a mismatch in pattern matching between Spring Security and Spring MVC, and the potential for a security bypass.

CVE-2024-38816: Applications serving static resources through the functional web frameworks WebMvc.fn or WebFlux.fn are vulnerable to path traversal attacks. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests and obtain any file on the file system that is also accessible to the process in which the Spring application is running.

Specifically, an application is vulnerable when both of the following are true:

• the web application uses RouterFunctions to serve static resources
• resource handling is explicitly configured with a FileSystemResource location

However, malicious requests are blocked and rejected when any of the following is true:

• the Spring Security HTTP Firewall https://docs.spring.io/spring-security/reference/servlet/exploits/firewall.html  is in use
• the application runs on Tomcat or Jetty

CVE-2024-38819: Applications serving static resources through the functional web frameworks WebMvc.fn or WebFlux.fn are vulnerable to path traversal attacks. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests and obtain any file on the file system that is also accessible to the process in which the Spring application is running.

CVE-2024-38828: Spring MVC controller methods with an @RequestBody byte[] method parameter are vulnerable to a DoS attack.

CVE-2025-41242: Spring Framework MVC applications can be vulnerable to a “Path Traversal Vulnerability” when deployed on a non-compliant Servlet container.

An application can be vulnerable when all the following are true:

• the application is deployed as a WAR or with an embedded Servlet container
• the Servlet container does not reject suspicious sequences https://jakarta.ee/specifications/servlet/6.1/jakarta-servlet-spec-6.1.html#uri-path-canonicalization
• the application serves static resources https://docs.spring.io/spring-framework/reference/web/webmvc/mvc-config/static-resources.html#page-title  with Spring resource handling

We have verified that applications deployed on Apache Tomcat or Eclipse Jetty are not vulnerable, as long as default security features are not disabled in the configuration. Because we cannot check exploits against all Servlet containers and configuration variants, we strongly recommend upgrading your application.

This patched artifact is a drop-in replacement for org.springframework:spring-webmvc 5.3.18 from Maven Central.

Red Hat Lightwell has released org.springframework:spring 5.3.18.rhlw-00010 with a backported security fix.

CVE-2023-20860: Spring Framework running version 6.0.0 - 6.0.6 or 5.3.0 - 5.3.25 using "**" as a pattern in Spring Security configuration with the mvcRequestMatcher creates a mismatch in pattern matching between Spring Security and Spring MVC, and the potential for a security bypass.

This patched artifact is a drop-in replacement for org.springframework:spring 5.3.18 from Maven Central.

Spring Framework running version 6.0.0 - 6.0.6 or 5.3.0 - 5.3.25 using "**" as a pattern in Spring Security configuration with the mvcRequestMatcher creates a mismatch in pattern matching between Spring Security and Spring MVC, and the potential for a security bypass.

TuxCare rebuilt 8 org.springframework packages to address 13 CVEs. Fixed in 5.3.7-tuxcare.2.

TuxCare rebuilt 3 org.springframework packages to address 4 CVEs. Fixed in 5.3.24-tuxcare.2.

TuxCare rebuilt 4 org.springframework packages to address 4 CVEs. Fixed in 5.3.25-tuxcare.3.

TuxCare rebuilt 10 org.springframework packages to address 29 CVEs. Fixed in 5.3.21-tuxcare.1.

TuxCare rebuilt 11 org.springframework packages to address 35 CVEs. Fixed in 5.3.20-tuxcare.1.

TuxCare rebuilt 10 org.springframework packages to address 34 CVEs. Fixed in 5.3.13-tuxcare.1.

TuxCare rebuilt 11 org.springframework packages to address 33 CVEs. Fixed in 5.3.9-tuxcare.1.

TuxCare rebuilt 6 org.springframework packages to address 9 CVEs. Fixed in 6.0.0-tuxcare.5.

TuxCare rebuilt 7 org.springframework packages to address 10 CVEs. Fixed in 5.3.23-tuxcare.4.

TuxCare rebuilt 7 org.springframework packages to address 11 CVEs. Fixed in 5.3.19-tuxcare.4.

Root has patched CVE-2023-20860 in the org.springframework:spring-webmvc package for Root:Maven. Multiple fixed versions available.