Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-40981

High

Published: 07 May 2026

Published
07 May 2026
Modified
12 May 2026
KEV Added
—
Patch
—
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0002 6.1th percentile
Risk Priority 15 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

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 Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 6.1th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

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-639

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

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 →
T1552 Unsecured Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

CWE-639 authz bypass on public config server directly enables T1190 exploitation and subsequent exposure of cloud secrets (T1552).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-41002Same product: Vmware Spring Cloud Config
CVE-2026-40982Same product: Vmware Spring Cloud Config
CVE-2026-40976Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2026-22733Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2026-22754Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2026-22732Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2025-4855Shared CWE-639
CVE-2026-22731Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2026-22747Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2026-22750Same 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

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.

AC-24 Access Control Decisions
addresses: CWE-639

Per-request decision making makes it harder to bypass authorization using user-controlled keys without proper validation in the decision process.

AC-3 Access Enforcement
addresses: CWE-639

Consistent enforcement of approved authorizations makes bypassing via user-controlled keys ineffective.

References