CVE-2018-1196 Moderate severity vulnerability that affects org.springframework.boot:spring-boot
A symlink attack in the Spring Boot embedded launch script allows a local user to overwrite arbitrary files and escalate privileges.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2018-1196?
CVE-2018-1196 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Dell EMC Spring Boot, published on 19 Mar 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Spring Boot supports an embedded launch script that can be used to easily run the application as a systemd or init.d linux service. The script included with Spring Boot 1.5.9 and earlier and 2.0.0.M1 through 2.0.0.M7 is susceptible to a symlink attack which allows the "run_user" to overwrite and take ownership of any file on the same system. In order to instigate the attack, the application must be installed as a service and the "run_user" requires shell access to the server. Spring Boot application that are not installed as a service, or are not using the embedded launch script are not susceptible.
Weakness: CWE-59
Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-1196?
2 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.springframework.boot:spring-boot. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
org.springframework.boot:spring-boot Maven | From 1.5.0 | 1.5.10 |
org.springframework.boot:spring-boot Maven | From 1.5.0 | 1.5.10 |
Products include Vmware Spring Boot.
How do I fix CVE-2018-1196?
Upgrade org.springframework.boot:spring-boot to 1.5.10 or later.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2018-1196 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-1196 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Dell EMC Spring Boot
- CVE-2023-20873 Spring Boot Security Bypass with Wildcard Pattern Matching on Cloud Foundry
- CVE-2026-40976 Spring Boot's default security filter chain has no authorization rule with Actuator but without Health
- CVE-2026-22731 Authentication Bypass under Actuator Health groups paths
- CVE-2026-22733 Authentication Bypass under Actuator CloudFoundry endpoints
- CVE-2022-27772 Temporary Directory Hijacking to Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in org.springframework.boot:spring-boot
Sources
Also known as GHSA-xx65-cc7g-9pfp.