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Improper AuthenticationWeakness · CWE-287

CVE-2026-40995

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-06-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
60/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
X509AuthenticationProvider could issue a fully authenticated X509AuthenticationToken when a presented certificate mapped to UserDetails, without applying Spring Security's standard account lifecycle checks (disabled, locked, expired, or credentials-expired accounts). Affected versions: Spring Web Services 5.0.0 through 5.0.1; 4.1.0 through 4.1.3; 4.0.0 through 4.0.18; 3.1.0 through 3.1.8.

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 confidence

The X509AuthenticationProvider in Spring Web Services bypasses standard Spring Security account lifecycle checks (disabled, locked, expired, credentials-expired) when authenticating via X.509 certificates. An attacker with a valid certificate mapped to a user account can authenticate successfully even if that account should be locked, disabled, or expired.

MitigationUpgrade to Spring Web Services versions 5.0.2+, 4.1.4+, 4.0.19+, or 3.1.9+, or implement custom post-authentication logic that validates account status before granting access.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS 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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Spring Web Services usage and version
    Search for spring-ws-core or spring-ws-security JARs in your project dependencies (pom.xml, build.gradle, or lib directory). Check the declared version against known affected versions of Spring Web Services.
    Affected if Spring Web Services is in use and the version has the vulnerable X509AuthenticationProvider class
  2. Locate X509AuthenticationProvider configuration
    Search your codebase for X509AuthenticationProvider bean definitions or XML configuration (in security context files). Look for classes extending or configuring X509Authentication.
    Affected if X509AuthenticationProvider is explicitly configured as an authentication provider
  3. Verify X509 certificate authentication is enabled
    Check security configuration files (XML or Java-based) for x509() method in HttpSecurity or x509-key-*.pem settings in application properties. Confirm clientAuth is set to need or want in server.ssl configuration.
    Affected if X509-based client authentication is enabled and in use for user authentication
  4. Identify accounts with restricted status
    Query your user/account database or UserDetailsService implementation for records where enabled=false, accountLocked=true, accountExpired=true, or credentialsExpired=true.
    Affected if There exist user accounts with disabled, locked, or expired status that should be blocked
  5. Confirm custom account status validation exists
    Search for custom authentication provider or X509AuthenticationProvider subclass that manually checks AccountStatusUserDetailsChecker or similar account status validation after authentication.
    Affected if No custom account status validation is implemented after X509 authentication completes

You are affected if your environment uses Spring Web Services with X509AuthenticationProvider enabled and contains disabled/locked/expired user accounts without custom account status validation after certificate authentication.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade to Spring Web Services versions 5.0.2+, 4.1.4+, 4.0.19+, or 3.1.9+, or implement custom post-authentication logic that validates account status before granting access.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Spring Web Services 5.0.2+ (5.x), 4.1.4+ (4.x), or 3.1.9+ (3.x) - migrate to supported 4.x or 5.x branch

  1. 1. Identify the exact Spring Web Services version in use by checking project dependencies (pom.xml, build.gradle, or MANIFEST.MF)
  2. 2. For Spring Web Services 5.x branch: upgrade to version 5.0.2 or later
  3. 3. For Spring Web Services 4.x branch: upgrade to version 4.1.4 or later
  4. 4. For Spring Web Services 3.x branch: upgrade to version 3.1.9 or later (or plan migration to supported branch)
  5. 5. After upgrade, verify that X509 certificate authentication properly enforces account status checks (disabled, locked, expired, credentials-expired)
  6. 6. Run authentication-related integration tests to confirm proper account lifecycle validation
Caveat Upgrading across major/minor versions may require API compatibility testing; 3.x branch may have limited community support

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-40995 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data