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
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
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
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.
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.
Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2024-22257 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-22257 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.