Servers and applications
CVE-2016-9879
An issue was discovered in Pivotal Spring Security before 3.2.10, 4.1.x before 4.1.4, and 4.2.x before 4.2.1. Spring Security does not consider URL path parameters when processing security constraints. By adding a URL path parameter with an encoded "/" to a request, an attacker may be able to bypass a security constraint. The root cause of this issue is a lack of clarity regarding the handling…
- Severity
- High 7.5
- Published
- 6 Jan 2017
- Last changed
- 17 Jun 2026
- Added to UpHeron
- 1 Nov 2026
- Exploit chance
- 1.5% in the next 30 daysHigher than 73% of CVEs. EPSS by FIRST, 11 Nov 2026
- Weakness
- CWE-417
- Attack
- Over the network · No login needed · No user action needed
- Attacker can
- Change data
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N- Sources
- NVD
Description
An issue was discovered in Pivotal Spring Security before 3.2.10, 4.1.x before 4.1.4, and 4.2.x before 4.2.1. Spring Security does not consider URL path parameters when processing security constraints. By adding a URL path parameter with an encoded "/" to a request, an attacker may be able to bypass a security constraint. The root cause of this issue is a lack of clarity regarding the handling of path parameters in the Servlet Specification. Some Servlet containers include path parameters in the value returned for getPathInfo() and some do not. Spring Security uses the value returned by getPathInfo() as part of the process of mapping requests to security constraints. The unexpected presence of path parameters can cause a constraint to be bypassed.
Affected software
| Software | Affected versions |
|---|---|
IBM WebSphere Application ServerServers and applications · cpe:a:ibm:websphere_application_server |
All 13 release lines
|