Spring Security versions 5.5.x prior to 5.5.1, 5.4.x prior to 5.4.7, 5.3.x prior to 5.3.10 and 5.2.x prior to 5.2.11 are susceptible to a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack via the initiation of the Authorization Request in an OAuth 2.0 Client Web and WebFlux application. A malicious user or attacker can send multiple requests initiating the Authorization Request for the Authorization Code Grant, which has the potential of exhausting system resources using a single session or multiple sessions.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring_security | Vmware | 5.2.0 (including) | 5.2.11 (excluding) |
| Spring_security | Vmware | 5.3.0 (including) | 5.3.10 (excluding) |
| Spring_security | Vmware | 5.4.0 (including) | 5.4.7 (excluding) |
| Spring_security | Vmware | 5.5.0 (including) | 5.5.1 (excluding) |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.11 | RedHat | spring-security-oauth2-client | * |
| Libspring-security-2.0-java | Ubuntu | trusty | * |
| Libspring-security-2.0-java | Ubuntu | upstream | * |
| Libspring-security-2.0-java | Ubuntu | xenial | * |
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.