CVE-2024-22257 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) CWE-862 vulnerability in org.springframework.security:spring-security-core. A fix is available for org.springframework.security:spring-security-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Erroneous authentication pass in Spring Security
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-2024-22257.
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-2024-22257 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 377,636 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.security:spring-security-core☕org.springframework.security:spring-security-core☕org.springframework.security:spring-security-core☕org.springframework.security:spring-security-coreReal-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 Security, versions 5.7.x prior to 5.7.12, 5.8.x prior to 5.8.11, versions 6.0.x prior to 6.0.9, versions 6.1.x prior to 6.1.8, versions 6.2.x prior to 6.2.3, an application is possible vulnerable to broken access control when it directly uses the AuthenticatedVoter#vote passing a null Authentication parameter.
Specifically, an application is vulnerable if:
The application uses AuthenticatedVoter directly and a null authentication parameter is passed to it resulting in an erroneous true return value.
An application is not vulnerable if any of the following is true:
- The application does not use AuthenticatedVoter#vote directly.
- The application does not pass null to AuthenticatedVoter#vote.
Note that AuthenticatedVoter is deprecated since 5.8, use implementations of AuthorizationManager as a replacement.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.security:spring-security-core | all versions | 5.7.12org.springframework.security:spring-security-core:5.7.12 |
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.security:spring-security-core | ≥ 5.8.0&&< 5.8.11 | 5.8.11org.springframework.security:spring-security-core:5.8.11 |
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.security:spring-security-core | ≥ 6.0.0&&< 6.1.8 | 6.1.8org.springframework.security:spring-security-core:6.1.8 |
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.security:spring-security-core | ≥ 6.2.0&&< 6.2.3 | 6.2.3org.springframework.security:spring-security-core:6.2.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.springframework.security:spring-security-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.springframework.security:spring-security-core to 5.7.12 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-22257 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-2024-22257 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-22257. 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.
The AuthenticatedVoter class was deprecated since Spring Security 5.8 is used in favor of the AuthorizationManager class, which is not vulnerable to this issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-22257 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-22257 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.