CVE-2021-22118 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in org.springframework:spring-web. A fix is available for org.springframework:spring-web — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Improper Privilege Management in Spring Framework
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-22118 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.springframework:spring-web☕org.springframework:spring-webReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
In Spring Framework, versions 5.2.x prior to 5.2.15 and versions 5.3.x prior to 5.3.7, a WebFlux application is vulnerable to a privilege escalation: by (re)creating the temporary storage directory, a locally authenticated malicious user can read or modify files that have been uploaded to the WebFlux application, or overwrite arbitrary files with multipart request data.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.springframework:spring-web | ≥ 5.2.0&&< 5.2.15 | 5.2.15org.springframework:spring-web:5.2.15 |
| ☕Maven | org.springframework:spring-web | ≥ 5.3.0&&< 5.3.7 | 5.3.7org.springframework:spring-web:5.3.7 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.springframework:spring-web, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.springframework:spring-web to 5.2.15 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-22118 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2021-22118 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-22118. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
In OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) the jenkins package bundles the vulnerable version of spring-framework, but as Jenkins is not a type of WebFlux application is not impacted by this vulnerability. Therefore the OCP components have been marked as affected/wontfix. This may be fixed in a future release.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Fuse 7.10 | spring-web | RHSA-2021:5134 |
| Red Hat Integration | see advisory | RHSA-2021:3205 |
| Red Hat Integration | spring-web | RHSA-2021:4918 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-22118 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-22118 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.