Spring HateoasFramework / library · VMware
CVE-2023-34036
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 · uneditedReactive web applications that use Spring HATEOAS to produce hypermedia-based responses might be exposed to malicious forwarded headers if they are not behind a trusted proxy that ensures correctness of such headers, or if they don't have anything else in place to handle (and possibly discard) forwarded headers either in WebFlux or at the level of the underlying HTTP server. For the application to be affected, it needs to satisfy the following requirements: * It needs to use the reactive web stack (Spring WebFlux) and Spring HATEOAS to create links in hypermedia-based responses. * The application infrastructure does not guard against clients submitting (X-)Forwarded… headers.
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 confidenceReactive Spring WebFlux applications using Spring HATEOAS to generate hypermedia links are vulnerable to header injection via malicious X-Forwarded-* headers. When applications are not behind a trusted proxy that sanitizes these headers, attackers can manipulate the apparent request origin, causing the application to generate incorrect hypermedia links pointing to attacker-controlled hosts.
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 HateoasFramework / library
< 1.5.5>= 2.0.0, < 2.0.5= 2.1.0CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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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Confirm Spring HATEOAS dependency presenceInspect your project's build file (pom.xml, build.gradle) or the deployed lib folder for the spring-hateoas or spring-hateoas-reactive library.Affected if Spring HATEOAS is not present in the application dependencies, the vulnerability does not apply.
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Identify installed Spring HATEOAS versionLocate the spring-hateoas jar file in your deployment and read its version from the filename, or run: jar -xf spring-hateoas-*.jar META-INF/MANIFEST.MF and check the Implementation-Version.Affected if The version falls into any of these ranges: < 1.5.5, >= 2.0.0 and < 2.0.5, or exactly 2.1.0.
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Verify the application uses Spring WebFluxCheck your dependencies for spring-boot-starter-webflux, or look for ReactiveWebApplicationContext in the application startup logs, or inspect the main class for @EnableWebFlux annotation.Affected if The vulnerability only affects reactive WebFlux applications; Spring MVC applications are not impacted.
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Inspect forwarded header handling configurationExamine your application.properties or application.yml for properties like server.forward-headers-strategy, or look for ForwardedHeaderFilter bean configuration. Also check your HTTP server (Netty, Reactor Netty) configuration.Affected if The application does not have a trusted proxy configuration and allows untrusted X-Forwarded-* headers to reach the application code (i.e., server.forward-headers-strategy is not set to NATIVE or is missing entirely with no external proxy sanitizing headers).
You are affected if your application uses Spring HATEOAS with WebFlux, runs an affected version (less than 1.5.5, 2.0.0-2.0.4, or exactly 2.1.0), and does not have a trusted proxy configuration that sanitizes X-Forwarded-* headers.
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.
dbcve · scoped1.5.52.0.5
Deploy behind a trusted reverse proxy that validates and removes untrusted forwarded headers, or explicitly configure Spring WebFlux and the underlying HTTP server to discard or reject (X-)Forwarded-* headers from untrusted sources.
Upgrade to Spring HATEOAS 1.5.5+ (1.x branch) or 2.0.5+/2.1.1+/2.2.0+ (2.x branch depending on current version)
- Identify the current Spring HATEOAS version in use by checking project dependencies (e.g., pom.xml or build.gradle)
- Determine which major version branch is in use (1.x or 2.x)
- For 1.x users: Upgrade to version 1.5.5 or later
- For 2.0.x users: Upgrade to version 2.0.5 or later
- For 2.1.x users: Upgrade to version 2.1.1 or later (or 2.2.0+)
- After upgrading, verify hypermedia links are generated correctly in responses
- Ensure proxy configuration (e.g., trusted proxies) is properly set if running behind a reverse proxy
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Spring Hateoas
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-34036 — 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-2023-34036 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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