CVE-2026-41729: Spring Data REST SpEL Injection via Map Key in JSON Patch

Severity: high (CVSS 8.1 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-06-09 · updated 2026-07-23
Weakness: CWE-917

Description

Spring Data REST is vulnerable to SpEL expression injection through map-typed properties when processing JSON Patch (application/json-patch+json) requests. When a persistent entity exposes a Map-typed property, the JSON Pointer path segment used as the map key is embedded directly into a SpEL expression without sanitization or validation. Affected versions: Spring Data REST 3.7.0 through 3.7.19; 4.3.0 through 4.3.16; 4.4.0 through 4.4.14; 4.5.0 through 4.5.11; 5.0.0 through 5.0.5.

Affected products

Spring Data REST: from 3.7.0 before 3.7.20; from 4.3.0 before 4.3.17; from 4.4.0 before 4.4.15; from 4.5.0 before 4.5.11.1; from 5.0.0 before 5.0.5.1 — fixed in 3.7.20, 4.3.17, 4.4.15, 4.5.11.1, 5.0.5.1
Spring Data REST: from 3.7.0 before 3.7.20; from 4.3.0 before 4.3.17; from 4.4.0 before 4.4.15; from 4.5.0 before 4.5.12; from 5.0.0 before 5.0.6 — fixed in 3.7.20, 4.3.17, 4.4.15, 4.5.12, 5.0.6

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Spring Data REST 3.7.20, 4.3.17, 4.4.15, 4.5.11.1; Spring Data REST 3.7.20, 4.3.17, 4.4.15, 4.5.12. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://spring.io/security/cve-2026-41729

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