Authorization Bypass in Spring Security
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.
Affected software
Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.
| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Java / Kotlin (Maven) | org.springframework.security:spring-security-core | < 3.1.7, >= 3.2.0, < 3.2.5 | 3.1.7, 3.2.5 |
References
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-3527
- https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-security/issues/2907
- https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-security/commit/934937d9c1dc20c396b96c08310b72cfa627acb
- https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-security
- https://pivotal.io/security/cve-2014-3527
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-287- Platform
- Java / Kotlin (Maven)
- Package
org.springframework.security:spring-security-core- Disclosed
- 15.09.2020
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 12:21
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-wmv4-5w76-vp9g - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: org.springframework.security:spring-security-core
All published vulnerabilities of this package (Java / Kotlin (Maven)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
- Total entries
- 31
- First → latest
- 10.2018 04.2026
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- Critical 4
- High 11
- Medium 15
- Low 1
Disclosures per year
- 2018: 3
- 2019: 2
- 2020: 4
- 2021: 1
- 2022: 10
- 2023: 1
- 2024: 4
- 2025: 3
- 2026: 3
-
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