Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-40981

Access Control in Vmware Spring Cloud Config 3.1.0 – 3.1.14

Access Control
Published
07 May 2026
Modified
15 July 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
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:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0043 36th percentile
Risk Priority 57 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-40981 is a high-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (CWE-639) vulnerability in Vmware Spring Cloud Config. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Services File Permissions Weakness (T1574.010); ranked at the 36th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

When using Google Secrets Manager as a backend for the Spring Cloud Config server a client can craft a request to the config server potentially exposing secrets from unintended GCP projects. Spring Cloud Config 3.1.x: affected from 3.1.0 through 3.1.13…

more

(inclusive); upgrade to 3.1.14 or greater (Enterprise Support Only). Spring Cloud Config 4.1.x: affected from 4.1.0 through 4.1.9 (inclusive); upgrade to 4.1.10 or greater (Enterprise Support Only). Spring Cloud Config 4.2.x: affected from 4.2.0 through 4.2.6 (inclusive); upgrade to 4.2.7 or greater (Enterprise Support Only). Spring Cloud Config 4.3.x: affected from 4.3.0 through 4.3.2 (inclusive); upgrade to 4.3.3 or greater. Spring Cloud Config 5.0.x: affected from 5.0.0 through 5.0.2 (inclusive); upgrade to 5.0.3 or greater.

CWE(s)
CWE-639CWE-1220

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1574.010 Services File Permissions Weakness Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the binaries used by services.
attack.mitre.org →
T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
attack.mitre.org →
T1556 Modify Authentication Process Defense Impairment
Adversaries may modify authentication mechanisms and processes to access user credentials or enable otherwise unwarranted access to accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-40982Same product: Vmware Spring Cloud Config
CVE-2020-5410Same product: Vmware Spring Cloud Config
CVE-2026-41002Same product: Vmware Spring Cloud Config
CVE-2026-41004Same product: Vmware Spring Cloud Config
CVE-2023-20859Same product: Vmware Spring Cloud Config
CVE-2026-40976Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2023-20899Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2023-34063Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2025-41231Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2021-21978Same vendor: Vmware

Affected Assets

vmware
spring cloud config
3.1.0 — 3.1.14 · 4.1.0 — 4.1.10 · 4.2.0 — 4.2.7

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 4 hardening rules · 4 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V16.4.2
  • V8.4.2
  • V11.7.1
  • V13.2.4

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

Enforcing approved authorizations on every access request structurally stops a user-controlled key from reaching another user's data.

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

Least privilege explicitly demands that only the minimum necessary accesses are granted, eliminating the broad permissions that define this weakness.

AC-24 Access Control Decisions good match

Requiring explicit access-control decisions on each request blocks unauthorized key-driven access.

AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement partial match

AC-4 enforces approved information flows with explicit source/destination rules, preventing overly coarse access policies from being deployed.

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 full match
prevents

Enforcing authorization policy and least privilege directly blocks user-controlled key tampering that bypasses access checks.

PR.IR-01 mostly match
prevents

Logical access controls prevent unauthorized data access that results from missing authorization checks on object references.

PR.PS-06 partial match
prevents

PR.PS-06's general SDLC practices can surface granularity issues during design/review (partial prevention) but do not specifically target access-control policy breadth, so they remove only part of CWE-1220's risk.

DE.AE-06 none match
degrades

CWE-1220 permits unauthorized access to sensitive assets but neither prevents nor impairs the delivery of adverse-event information to authorized recipients.

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect missing authorization checks but does not prevent the weakness in production.

A.8.3 Information access restriction mostly match
prevents

Information access restriction explicitly enforces that users may only retrieve data they are authorized to see, directly addressing user-controlled key bypass.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
prevents

Access control policy directly requires enforcement of authorization rules that prevent unauthorized access via manipulated keys.

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
prevents

Managing access rights includes ensuring users can only access their own records and not bypass authorization by altering identifiers.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights partial match
mitigates

Privileged access rights control restricts what data each user may access, mitigating direct object reference attacks.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle includes authorization design but does not itself implement runtime access checks.

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` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Windows Server 2016 (1 rule)
  • V-225025 Local accounts with blank passwords must be restricted to prevent access from the network. prevents CWE-1220
Windows Server 2022 (1 rule)
  • V-254446 Windows Server 2022 must prevent local accounts with blank passwords from being used from the network. prevents CWE-1220

References