VulnerabilityPublished 5 Feb 2024Updated 3 Jun 2025

CVE-2023-34042: Incorrect Permission Assignment for spring-security.xsd

Affects Spring SecuritySource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.1 Medium · fixed in 6.1.4 : update Spring Security when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.1Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 14% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 6.1.4, 6.0.7, 5.8.7 +1

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: High
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: High
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 5 Feb 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade org.springframework.security/spring-security-config to 6.1.4, 6.0.7, 5.8.7 or 5.7.11.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Mavenorg.springframework.security/spring-security-config`pkg:maven/org.springframework.security/spring-security-config`Other threats	Affected <5.7.11 <5.8.7 <6.0.7 <6.1.4	Fixed in 5.7.11 5.8.7 6.0.7 6.1.4

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Immediately upgrade Spring Security to the latest patched versions (6.1.4 or later, 6.0.7 or later, 5.8.7 or later, or 5.7.11 or later) where the permission issue is resolved. 2) Audit file system permissions on all Spring Security-related files, especially spring-security.xsd, ensuring they are not world-writable and adhere to the principle of least privilege. 3) Implement strict access controls and monitoring on servers running Spring Security to detect unauthorized file modifications, using file integrity monitoring tools. 4) Restrict local access to application servers to trusted administrators only, minimizing the risk of local privilege abuse. 5) Incorporate this vulnerability into vulnerability management and patching workflows to ensure timely updates. 6) Conduct security reviews of application deployment environments to verify no other critical resources have insecure permissions. 7) Educate development and operations teams about the risks of improper file permissions and secure configuration management practices. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on permission audits, access restrictions, and proactive monitoring tailored to the nature of this vulnerability.

Description

The spring-security.xsd file inside the spring-security-config jar is world writable which means that if it were extracted it could be written by anyone with access to the file system. While there are no known exploits, this is an example of “CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource” and could result in an exploit. Users should update to the latest version of Spring Security to mitigate any future exploits found around this issue.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability depends largely on the deployment context of Spring Security. Many enterprises and public sector entities across Europe use Spring Security to protect web applications and APIs. If an attacker gains local access to a system hosting a vulnerable Spring Security version, they could modify the spring-security.xsd file, potentially undermining security policies and enabling privilege escalation or bypass of security controls. This could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data or critical systems, especially in sectors like finance, healthcare, and government where Spring-based applications are common. Although exploitation requires local privileged access, insider threats or attackers who have already compromised a low-privilege account could escalate their privileges. The integrity compromise could also undermine trust in application security, leading to compliance issues under GDPR and other European data protection regulations. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the vulnerability represents a latent threat that could be weaponized in targeted attacks against high-value European organizations.

CWE-732Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighOWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors.
Implementation
When using a critical resource such as a configuration file, check to see if the resource has insecure permissions (such as being modifiable by any regular user), and generate an error or even exit the software if there is a possibility that the resource could have been modified by an unauthorized party.
Architecture and Design
Divide the software into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully defining distinct user groups, privileges, and/or roles. Map these against data, functionality, and the related resources. Then set the permissions accordingly.
Architecture and Design · Operation · Sandbox or Jail
Run the code in a "jail" or similar sandbox environment that enforces strict boundaries between the process and the operating system. This may effectively restrict which files can be accessed in a particular directory or which commands can be executed by the software.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
REST Assessment (opens in a new tab)
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V4.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
V8.3.8 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs (opens in a new tab)
Directory Indexing (opens in a new tab)
Using Malicious Files (opens in a new tab)
Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels (opens in a new tab)
Signing Malicious Code (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 4 Jul 2025, 13:58 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-732

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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