Overview

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures system has identified a significant vulnerability, CVE-2025-41248, within Spring Security’s annotation detection mechanism. This vulnerability, which primarily affects applications using Spring Security’s @EnableMethodSecurity feature, can potentially lead to an authorization bypass, compromising system security and leading to potential data leakage.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-41248
Severity: High (CVSS Score: 7.5)
Attack Vector: Remote
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Spring Security | All versions supporting @EnableMethodSecurity

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability stems from a flaw in the Spring Security annotation detection mechanism’s ability to resolve annotations on methods within type hierarchies with a parameterized super type with unbounded generics. This could potentially allow an attacker to bypass security measures by exploiting the incorrect resolution of annotations, specifically when using @PreAuthorize and other method security annotations.

Conceptual Example Code

Given the nature of the vulnerability, a direct exploit example might not be applicable. However, the vulnerability might be exploited in the context of a broader attack, such as a malicious user gaining access to sensitive data by bypassing authorization. Here’s an illustrative example:

public abstract class GenericClass<T> {
@PreAuthorize("hasRole('ADMIN')")
public abstract void sensitiveOperation(T data);
}
public class ConcreteClass extends GenericClass<SomeType> {
// The @PreAuthorize annotation is not correctly resolved here due to the vulnerability
public void sensitiveOperation(SomeType data) {
// Implementation of sensitive operation
}
}

In this example, the attacker might exploit the vulnerability by invoking `sensitiveOperation` on an instance of `ConcreteClass`, bypassing the intended ‘ADMIN’ role restriction.

Recommended Mitigation

To mitigate this vulnerability, the recommended course of action is to apply the vendor-supplied patch. In the absence of an immediate patch, employing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation measure.