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Authorization Bypass in Spring Security

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Sep 15, 2020 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Apr 16, 2024

Package

maven org.springframework.security:spring-security-core (Maven)

Affected versions

< 3.1.7
>= 3.2.0, < 3.2.5

Patched versions

3.1.7
3.2.5

Description

When using Spring Security's CAS Proxy ticket authentication a malicious CAS Service could trick another CAS Service into authenticating a proxy ticket that was not associated. This is due to the fact that the proxy ticket authentication uses the information from the HttpServletRequest which is populated based upon untrusted information within the HTTP request.

This means if there are access control restrictions on which CAS services can authenticate to one another, those restrictions can be bypassed.

If users are not using CAS Proxy tickets and not basing access control decisions based upon the CAS Service, then there is no impact to users.

Mitigation

Users of affected versions should apply the following mitigation:

  • Users of 3.2x should upgrade to 3.2.5 or later
  • Users of 3.1.x should upgrade to 3.1.7 or later

Credit

This issue was identified by David Ohsie and brought to our attention by the CAS Development team.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database May 25, 2017
Reviewed Sep 15, 2020
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Sep 15, 2020
Last updated Apr 16, 2024

Severity

Critical

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.338%
(72nd percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2014-3527

GHSA ID

GHSA-wmv4-5w76-vp9g

Source code

Credits

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