[GHSA-9pp5-9c7g-4r83] Spring Security authorization bypass for method security annotations on private methods

[tomabai]

Updates

• Affected products
• References

Comments
The vulnerability involves both spring-security-aspects and spring-security-core.
spring-security-aspects artifact is right to be flagged because the issue is only exploitable when that module (or @EnableMethodSecurity(mode = ASPECTJ)) is on the classpath.

On the other hand , the actual fix lives in spring-security-core, where the code that scans for security annotations is located. The patch changes a comparison from

if (method == candidate) { … }

to

if (method.equals(candidate)) { … }

Using equals() lets the scanner recognise the same method loaded by different class-loaders/AspectJ weaves, so the annotations are no longer skipped and the bypass is closed.

So to conclude, both packages should be flagged, also the fixing commit is in the core package which is anoth proof that this package is vulnerable. Moreover, to my understanding, if you use spring-security-core 6.4.5 and lower, even with the updated spring-security-aspects 6.4.6 you will still be vulnerable.

[helixplant]

Hi @tomabai, we are currently looking into this!

[tomabai]

@helixplant hi, is there any update?

[tomabai]

and now? any updates? why is it taking so long?

[Ya-123456]

Updates

• Affected products
• References

Comments
The vulnerability involves both spring-security-aspects and spring-security-core.
spring-security-aspects artifact is right to be flagged because the issue is only exploitable when that module (or @EnableMethodSecurity(mode = ASPECTJ)) is on the classpath.

On the other hand , the actual fix lives in spring-security-core, where the code that scans for security annotations is located. The patch changes a comparison from

if (method == candidate) { … }

to

if (method.equals(candidate)) { … }

Using equals() lets the scanner recognise the same method loaded by different class-loaders/AspectJ weaves, so the annotations are no longer skipped and the bypass is closed.

So to conclude, both packages should be flagged, also the fixing commit is in the core package which is anoth proof that this package is vulnerable. Moreover, to my understanding, if you use spring-security-core 6.4.5 and lower, even with the updated spring-security-aspects 6.4.6 you will still be vulnerable.

[tomabai]

@helixplant any updates?

[advisory-database]

Hi @tomabai! Thank you so much for contributing to the GitHub Advisory Database. This database is free, open, and accessible to all, and it's people like you who make it great. Thanks for choosing to help others. We hope you send in more contributions in the future!

[helixplant]

Hi @tomabai.
Thank you for your patience, we reached out to the CNA to confirm this information. While we have not heard back we’ve been able to validate your findings and have added org.springframework.security:spring-security-core and spring-projects/spring-security@c972de5 to this advisory.