CVE-2025-22233
Bypass vulnerability in spring-context (Maven)
What is CVE-2025-22233 About?
This vulnerability describes a bypass against `disallowedFields` checks in Spring Framework, specifically allowing locale-independent lowercase conversion for patterns and parameter names to be circumvented. This can lead to unauthorized modification of sensitive object fields. Exploitation details are not explicitly provided but suggest a moderate complexity.
Affected Software
- org.springframework:spring-context
- >6.0.0, <=6.0.23
- >6.2.0, <6.2.7
- <=5.3.39
- >6.1.0, <6.1.20
Technical Details
The vulnerability is a bypass of the disallowedFields checks in Spring Framework. While CVE-2024-38820 aimed to ensure locale-independent, lowercase conversion for both configured disallowedFields patterns and incoming request parameter names, there remain specific scenarios where this intended protection can be circumvented. This suggests that certain parameter names, perhaps with unusual casing or encoding, are not correctly canonicalized to their lowercase equivalent before being compared against the disallowedFields list. As a result, an attacker could craft a request parameter name that, despite matching a disallowed field in its logical form, bypasses the check due to discrepancies in the internal comparison logic, allowing unauthorized data binding to typically restricted fields.
What is the Impact of CVE-2025-22233?
Successful exploitation may allow attackers to modify sensitive or restricted fields, potentially leading to unauthorized data manipulation, privilege escalation, or system misconfiguration.
What is the Exploitability of CVE-2025-22233?
Exploitation of this bypass vulnerability is likely of moderate complexity, as it requires understanding the intricacies of Spring's data binding and the specific locale-independent conversion logic. Prerequisites involve being able to send crafted requests to a Spring application that uses disallowedFields for security. Authentication would depend on where the vulnerable data binding occurs in the application flow (e.g., pre-authentication for user registration or post-authentication for profile updates). No specific elevated privileges are necessarily required to trigger the bypass. This vulnerability can be exploited remotely by sending malicious HTTP requests. The primary risk factor is the continued use of disallowedFields without ensuring all possible bypasses are addressed, especially when user-controlled input directly relates to sensitive object properties.
What are the Known Public Exploits?
| PoC Author | Link | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| No known exploits | ||
What are the Available Fixes for CVE-2025-22233?
Available Upgrade Options
- org.springframework:spring-context
- >6.1.0, <6.1.20 → Upgrade to 6.1.20
- org.springframework:spring-context
- >6.2.0, <6.2.7 → Upgrade to 6.2.7
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Book a demoAdditional Resources
- https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework
- https://spring.io/security/cve-2025-22233
- https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/issues/34801
- https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/commit/edfcc6ffb188e4614ec9b212e3208b666981851c
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-22233
- https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-4wp7-92pw-q264
- https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/commit/ee62701f5634e904e42e218baad142cea2bcd332
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln-metrics/cvss/v3-calculator?vector=AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N&version=3.1
What are Similar Vulnerabilities to CVE-2025-22233?
Similar Vulnerabilities: CVE-2022-22965 , CVE-2021-22096 , CVE-2020-5407 , CVE-2019-11261 , CVE-2018-1259
