Spring Security Advisories

CVE-2024-38808: Spring Expression DoS Vulnerability

MEDIUM | AUGUST 14, 2024 | CVE-2024-38808

Description

In Spring Framework versions 5.3.0 - 5.3.38 and older unsupported versions, it is possible for a user to provide a specially crafted Spring Expression Language (SpEL) expression that may cause a denial of service (DoS) condition.

Specifically, an application is vulnerable when the following is true:

  • The application evaluates user-supplied SpEL expressions.

Affected Spring Products and Versions

  • Spring Framework
    • 5.3.0 to 5.3.38
    • Older, unsupported versions are also affected

Mitigation

Users of affected versions should upgrade to the corresponding fixed version.
Affected version(s)Fix versionAvailability
5.3.x5.3.39OSS

Users of affected versions should apply the following mitigation: 5.3.x users should upgrade to 5.3.39+ or 6.0+. Evaluation of user-supplied SpEL expressions should be avoided when possible; otherwise, user-supplied SpEL expressions should be evaluated with a SimpleEvaluationContext in read-only mode. No other steps are necessary.

Releases that have fixed this issue include:

  • Spring Framework
    • 5.3.39+
    • 6.0+

Credit

This issue was identified and responsibly reported by popko.

History

  • 2024-08-14: Initial vulnerability report published.

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