Security Resilience

CVE-2023-34034

Vmware Spring Security 5.6.0 – 5.6.12

Published
19 July 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.040 90th percentile
Risk Priority 88 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-34034 is a critical-severity Improper Preservation of Permissions (CWE-281) vulnerability in Vmware Spring Security. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 10% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

The vulnerability CVE-2023-34034 stems from a pattern-matching mismatch in Spring Security when the "**" wildcard is used in WebFlux configurations, allowing Spring Security rules to diverge from Spring WebFlux request handling and creating conditions for a security bypass. The affected component is Spring Security integrated with WebFlux, and the issue received a CVSS 9.1 rating reflecting network-accessible attack conditions without authentication requirements.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can supply crafted requests that evade intended access-control patterns, achieving unauthorized access that impacts confidentiality and integrity while leaving availability unaffected.

Spring and NetApp advisories reference the issue at the provided URLs and outline available updates or configuration changes for remediation.

The associated EPSS score reached a peak of 0.5102 after initial disclosure before receding to the current value of 0.4282.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Using "**" as a pattern in Spring Security configuration for WebFlux creates a mismatch in pattern matching between Spring Security and Spring WebFlux, and the potential for a security bypass.

CWE(s)
NVD-CWE-noinfoCWE-281

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control
Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.
attack.mitre.org →
T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
attack.mitre.org →
T1011 Exfiltration Over Other Network Medium Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over a different network medium than the command and control channel.
attack.mitre.org →
T1016 System Network Configuration Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may look for details about the network configuration and settings, such as IP and/or MAC addresses, of systems they access or through information discovery of remote systems.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-40988Same product: Vmware Spring Security
CVE-2026-22754Same product: Vmware Spring Security
CVE-2026-22732Same product: Vmware Spring Security
CVE-2026-59354Same product: Vmware Spring Security
CVE-2024-38810Same product: Vmware Spring Security
CVE-2026-47877Same product: Vmware Spring Security
CVE-2026-41003Same product: Vmware Spring Security
CVE-2026-41694Same product: Vmware Spring Security
CVE-2026-22747Same product: Vmware Spring Security
CVE-2024-22234Same product: Vmware Spring Security

Affected Assets

vmware
spring security
5.6.0 — 5.6.12 · 5.7.0 — 5.7.10 · 5.8.0 — 5.8.5

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

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Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

PS-5 Personnel Transfer
addresses: CWE-281

Forces removal or modification of permissions no longer required after reassignment, preventing improper preservation of old access rights.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-05 partial match
blocks

Enforcing least-privilege permission policies and reviews directly prevents incorrect permission propagation on copy/restore/share operations.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.8.10 Information deletion partial match
removes

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (higher-evidence rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Windows Server 2019 (1 rule)
  • V-205743 Windows Server 2019 organization created Active Directory Organizational Unit (OU) objects must have proper access control permissions. blocks CWE-281

References