GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 — spring-boot-starter-actua…
HIGHGHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) CWE-288 vulnerability in org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator. A fix is available for org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Spring Boot has an Authentication Bypass under Actuator Health groups paths
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 GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658.
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
GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 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 379,145 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-starter-actuator☕org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator☕org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuatorReal-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
Spring Boot applications with Actuator can be vulnerable to an "Authentication Bypass" vulnerability when an application endpoint that requires authentication is declared under a specific path, already configured for a Health Group additional path. This issue affects Spring Boot: from 4.0 before 4.0.3, from 3.5 before 3.5.11, from 3.4 before 3.4.15. This CVE is similar but not equivalent to CVE-2026-22733, as the conditions for exploit and vulnerable versions are different.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator | ≥ 3.4.0 | No fix |
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator | ≥ 3.5.0&&< 3.5.12 | 3.5.12org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator:3.5.12 |
| ☕Maven | org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator | ≥ 4.0.0-M1&&< 4.0.4 | 4.0.4org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator:4.0.4 |
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-starter-actuator, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
No patched version of org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator has shipped for GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658. 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.
To mitigate, ensure that application endpoints requiring authentication are not declared under paths already configured as Health Group additional paths within Spring Boot applications using Actuator. Review and adjust your application's configuration to prevent this overlap. A redeployment of the application is required for changes to take effect.Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| AMQ Clients 2026.Q3 | spring-boot | RHSA-2026:69459 |
| HawtIO HawtIO 4.4.0 | spring-boot | RHSA-2026:25089 |
| Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.18.1 for Spring Boot 3.5.14 | spring-boot | RHSA-2026:17668 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces 3.27 | devspaces/openvsx-rhel9:1776716842 | RHSA-2026:10175 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.