CVE-2023-20861 Spring Framework vulnerable to denial of service via specially crafted SpEL expression
Attackers can cause denial of service in Spring Framework applications by submitting specially crafted SpEL expressions.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-20861?
CVE-2023-20861 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Vmware Spring Framework, published on 23 Mar 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In Spring Framework versions 6.0.0 - 6.0.6, 5.3.0 - 5.3.25, 5.2.0.RELEASE - 5.2.22.RELEASE, and older unsupported versions, it is possible for a user to provide a specially crafted SpEL expression that may cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition.
Weakness: CWE-400
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20861?
6 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.springframework:spring-expression. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
org.springframework:spring-expression Maven | All versions | 5.2.23.RELEASE |
org.springframework:spring-expression Maven | All versions | 5.2.23.RELEASE |
org.springframework:spring-expression Maven | From 5.3.0 | 5.3.26 |
org.springframework:spring-expression Maven | From 5.3.0 | 5.3.26 |
org.springframework:spring-expression Maven | From 6.0.0 | 6.0.7 |
org.springframework:spring-expression Maven | From 6.0.0 | 6.0.7 |
Products include Vmware Spring Framework.
How do I fix CVE-2023-20861?
Upgrade org.springframework:spring-expression to a fixed version for your release line: 5.2.23.RELEASE, 5.3.26 or 6.0.7.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2023-20861 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20861 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Vmware Spring Framework
- CVE-2026-47884 Spring Framework Improper Path Limitation in XsltView
- CVE-2026-47890 Spring Framework Server Sent Event stream corruption while rendering fragments
- CVE-2026-47891 Spring Framework maxInMemorySize Bypassed in Jaxb2Decoder
- CVE-2026-47892 Spring Framework Header Predicate Bypass in WebFlux Functional Endpoints
- CVE-2026-59313 Server Sent Event stream corruption in Spring MVC functional web framework
Sources
Also known as CLEANSTART-2026-VG05953, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-20861, GHSA-564r-hj7v-mcr5, ROOT-APP-MAVEN-CVE-2023-20861, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-20861.