Spring MVC and WebFlux applications are vulnerable to Denial of Service attacks when resolving static resources.
More precisely, an application can be vulnerable when all the following are true:
- the application is using Spring MVC or Spring WebFlux
- the application is serving static resources from the file system
- the application is running on a Windows platform
When all the conditions above are met, the attacker can send malicious requests that are slow to resolve and that can keep HTTP connections in use. This can cause a Denial of Service on the application.
Weakness
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring_framework | Vmware | * | 5.3.48 (excluding) |
| Spring_framework | Vmware | 6.1.0 (including) | 6.1.27 (excluding) |
| Spring_framework | Vmware | 6.2.0 (including) | 6.2.18 (excluding) |
| Spring_framework | Vmware | 7.0.0 (including) | 7.0.7 (excluding) |
Potential Mitigations
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.
Related Attack Patterns
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/147.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/227.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/492.html