CVE-2024-38816: CVE-2024-38816: Path traversal vulnerability in functional web frameworks

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 21.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2024-09-13 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-22

Description

Applications serving static resources through the functional web frameworks WebMvc.fn or WebFlux.fn are vulnerable to path traversal attacks. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests and obtain any file on the file system that is also accessible to the process in which the Spring application is running. Specifically, an application is vulnerable when both of the following are true: * the web application uses RouterFunctions to serve static resources * resource handling is explicitly configured with a FileSystemResource location However, malicious requests are blocked and rejected when any of the following is true: * the Spring Security HTTP Firewall https://docs.spring.io/spring-security/reference/servlet/exploits/firewall.html is in use * the application runs on Tomcat or Jetty

Affected products

Spring by VMware Tanzu Spring Framework: from 5.3.0 before 5.3.40; from 6.0.0 before 6.0.24; from 6.1.0 before 6.1.13 — fixed in 5.3.40, 6.0.24, 6.1.13
Maven Org.Springframework:Spring-Webflux: from 6.1.0 before 6.1.13; from 6.0.0 through 6.0.23; from 5.3.0 through 5.3.39; 6.1.0, 6.1.1, 6.1.10, 6.1.11, 6.1.12, 6.1.2 (+71) — fixed in 6.1.13
Maven Org.Springframework:Spring-Webmvc: from 6.1.0 before 6.1.13; from 6.0.0 through 6.0.23; from 5.3.0 through 5.3.39; 6.1.0, 6.1.1, 6.1.10, 6.1.11, 6.1.12, 6.1.2 (+71) — fixed in 6.1.13

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Spring by VMware Tanzu Spring Framework 5.3.40, 6.0.24, 6.1.13; Maven Org.Springframework:Spring-Webflux 6.1.13; Maven Org.Springframework:Spring-Webmvc 6.1.13. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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