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HIGH severity

CVE-2026-40994 — spring-ws-security

HIGH

CVE-2026-40994 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) CWE-1188 vulnerability in org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security. A fix is available for org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Wss4jSecurityInterceptor disables WS-I BSP validation by default

Also known asGHSA-gg9r-wr4p-w63h
Published
Updated
Affected
4 pkgs
Patched
2 / 4
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 3, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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-2026-40994.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs25th percentile — riskier than 25% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.28%0.56%0.84%0.2%0.2%0.2%0.3%0.3%Jul 26Sep 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2026-40994 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 382,795 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

4 pkgs affected
☕org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security☕org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security☕org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security☕org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security

Real-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

Wss4jSecurityInterceptor initialized its BSP (WS-I Basic Security Profile) compliance flag so that inbound validation disabled WSS4J BSP enforcement on RequestData. Services that validate WS-Security on the network could therefore accept messages that violate BSP rules, weakening protocol-level checks.

Affected versions: Spring Web Services 5.0.0 through 5.0.1; 4.1.0 through 4.1.3; 4.0.0 through 4.0.18; 3.1.0 through 3.1.8.

Affected Packages

4 total 2 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
☕Mavenorg.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.0.25.0.2org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security:5.0.2
☕Mavenorg.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security≥ 4.1.0&&< 4.1.44.1.4org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security:4.1.4
☕Mavenorg.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security≥ 4.0.0No fix
☕Mavenorg.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security≥ 3.1.0No fix

Affected Products

1 product · 4 configurations
Application
spring web servicesbroadcom
≥ 5.0.0 && < 5.0.1.1
range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security to 5.0.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-40994 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

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.

Red HatImportant

A flaw was found in Spring Web Services. The Wss4jSecurityInterceptor class incorrectly initializes its WS-I Basic Security Profile (BSP) compliance flag during inbound validation on RequestData, disabling BSP enforcement by default. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit this behavior by sending non-compliant…

Workaround published by Red Hat
Explicitly enable WS-I Basic Security Profile compliance by invoking setBspCompliant(true) on configured Wss4jSecurityInterceptor bean instances during application initialization. Alternatively, configure custom inbound security handlers to enforce strict BSP validation rules at the application boundary.
Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-40994 (CC BY 4.0)

Frequently Asked Questions

Wss4jSecurityInterceptor initialized its BSP (WS-I Basic Security Profile) compliance flag so that inbound validation disabled WSS4J BSP enforcement on RequestData. Services that validate WS-Security on the network could therefore accept messages that violate BSP rules, weakening protocol-level checks. Affected versions: Spring Web Services 5.0.0 through 5.0.1; 4.1.0 through 4.1.3; 4.0.0 through 4.0.18; 3.1.0 through 3.1.8.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2026-40994: spring-ws — Fixed in 5.0.2 | O3 Security