Spring FrameworkFramework / library · VMware
CVE-2018-15801
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedSpring Security versions 5.1.x prior to 5.1.2 contain an authorization bypass vulnerability during JWT issuer validation. In order to be impacted, the same private key for an honest issuer and a malicious user must be used when signing JWTs. In that case, a malicious user could fashion signed JWTs with the malicious issuer URL that may be granted for the honest issuer.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceSpring Security 5.1.x before 5.1.2 has an authorization bypass in JWT issuer validation where the same private key used by both an honest issuer and a malicious user allows the attacker to forge JWTs with a fraudulent issuer URL that incorrectly validates against the honest issuer's trust.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Spring FrameworkFramework / library
>= 5.1.0, < 5.1.2CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the Spring Framework version in useInspect your project dependencies (Maven pom.xml, Gradle build.gradle, or the spring-core JAR manifest) to find the exact Spring Framework versionAffected if version is 5.1.0 or 5.1.1 (any version >= 5.1.0 and < 5.1.2)
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Confirm Spring Security JWT support is enabledSearch your codebase for JwtDecoder, JwtIssuerAuthenticationManagerBuilder, or spring-security-oauth2-jwt dependency usage in your security configuration classesAffected if JWT-based authentication is configured and the JwtIssuerAuthenticationManagerBuilder or similar JWT issuer validation is in use
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Locate JWT key configurationReview your security configuration files for bean definitions of type JwtDecoder or JwtKeys that specify the secret key or public key used for JWT signature verificationAffected if a single cryptographic key is configured for JWT validation across your application
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Determine if multiple issuers share the same keyExamine your JWT validator configuration to identify all configured issuer values (iss claim) and map them to their respective signing keys; check if more than one issuer references the identical key bean or certificateAffected if two or more distinct issuer URLs are validated against the same private or symmetric key
You are affected if your environment runs Spring Framework 5.1.0-5.1.1, uses Spring Security JWT issuer validation, and has multiple JWT issuers sharing the same signing key.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor data5.1.2
Upgrade to Spring Security 5.1.2 or later and implement per-issuer key separation to ensure each issuer uses a unique private key.
Fix this in Spring Framework
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-15801 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-15801 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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