Spring SecurityFramework / library · VMware
CVE-2019-11272
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 4.2.x up to 4.2.12, and older unsupported versions support plain text passwords using PlaintextPasswordEncoder. If an application using an affected version of Spring Security is leveraging PlaintextPasswordEncoder and a user has a null encoded password, a malicious user (or attacker) can authenticate using a password of "null".
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 versions 4.2.x through 4.2.12 support PlaintextPasswordEncoder which stores passwords in plain text. When a user record has a null encoded password in the database, the encoder treats the literal string 'null' as a valid password, allowing attackers to authenticate by entering 'null' as the password.
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 SecurityFramework / library
< 4.2.13
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 8.0CVSS 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
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
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 Spring Security versionInspect your project's dependency configuration (Maven pom.xml, Gradle build.gradle, or JAR manifest) to find the Spring Security version numberAffected if The version is 4.2.x through 4.2.12 (any version less than 4.2.13)
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Locate password encoder bean configurationSearch your Spring XML configuration files (*.xml) and Java configuration classes for PlaintextPasswordEncoder bean definitionAffected if PlaintextPasswordEncoder is explicitly configured as the password encoder bean
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Verify authentication provider configurationExamine your Spring Security authentication provider setup for references to PasswordEncoder that resolve to PlaintextPasswordEncoderAffected if The authentication provider uses a plaintext password encoder implementation
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Inspect user database recordsQuery your user/password storage database table to check for records where the password field is null or contains the literal string 'null'Affected if Any user record has a null encoded password or stores the literal string 'null' as the password hash
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Test authentication with literal null stringAttempt to authenticate using 'null' as the password for any user account that has a null encoded password in the databaseAffected if Authentication succeeds using 'null' as the password
Your environment is affected if you run Spring Security versions 4.2.x through 4.2.12 with PlaintextPasswordEncoder and have user records with null passwords that accept the literal 'null' string for authentication.
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 data4.2.13
Replace PlaintextPasswordEncoder with a proper secure password encoder such as BCryptPasswordEncoder and migrate existing user passwords to the new format.
Fix this in Spring Security
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 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 $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-11272 — 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-2019-11272 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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