CVE-2023-20883 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure. A fix is available for org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Spring Boot Welcome Page Denial of Service
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-20883.
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-2023-20883 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.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure☕org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure☕org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure☕org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigureReal-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 Boot versions 3.0.0 - 3.0.6, 2.7.0 - 2.7.11, 2.6.0 - 2.6.14, 2.5.0 - 2.5.14 and older unsupported versions, there is potential for a denial-of-service (DoS) attack if Spring MVC is used together with a reverse proxy cache.
Specifically, an application is vulnerable if all of the conditions are true:
- The application has Spring MVC auto-configuration enabled. This is the case by default if Spring MVC is on the classpath.
- The application makes use of Spring Boot's welcome page support, either static or templated.
- Your application is deployed behind a proxy which caches 404 responses.
Your application is NOT vulnerable if any of the following are true:
- Spring MVC auto-configuration is disabled. This is true if WebMvcAutoConfiguration is explicitly excluded, if Spring MVC is not on the classpath, or if spring.main.web-application-type is set to a value other than SERVLET.
- The application does not use Spring Boot's welcome page support.
- You do not have a proxy which caches 404 responses.
Affected Spring Products and Versions
Spring Boot
3.0.0 to 3.0.6 2.7.0 to 2.7.11 2.6.0 to 2.6.14 2.5.0 to 2.5.14
Older, unsupported versions are also affected Mitigation
Users of affected versions should apply the following mitigations:
- 3.0.x users should upgrade to 3.0.7+
- 2.7.x users should upgrade to 2.7.12+
- 2.6.x users should upgrade to 2.6.15+
- 2.5.x users should upgrade to 2.5.15+
Users of older, unsupported versions should upgrade to 3.0.7+ or 2.7.12+.
Workarounds: configure the reverse proxy not to cache 404 responses and/or not to cache responses to requests to the root (/) of the application.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure | ≥ 3.0.0&&< 3.0.7 | 3.0.7org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure:3.0.7 |
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure | ≥ 2.7.0&&< 2.7.12 | 2.7.12org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure:2.7.12 |
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure | ≥ 2.6.0&&< 2.6.15 | 2.6.15org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure:2.6.15 |
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure | all versions | 2.5.15org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure:2.5.15 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure to 3.0.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-20883 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-2023-20883 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-20883. 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat build of OptaPlanner 8 | spring-boot | RHSA-2023:4200 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.12 | spring-boot | RHSA-2023:3954 |
| RHINT Camel-Springboot 3.18.3.P2 | spring-boot | RHSA-2023:3641 |
| RHINT Camel-Springboot 3.20.1.P1 | spring-boot | RHSA-2023:3740 |
| RHPAM 7.13.4 async | spring-boot | RHSA-2023:4983 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-20883 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-20883 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.