# CVE-2025-22232: Spring Cloud Config Server May Not Use Vault Token Sent By Clients

> Spring Cloud Config Server may ignore client-provided Vault tokens, causing it to reuse a persisted token and bypass intended authentication controls.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 10 Apr 2025
- **Updated:** 10 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qpfh-2wpm-c362

## What is CVE-2025-22232?

CVE-2025-22232 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Spring Cloud Config, published on 10 Apr 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Spring Cloud Config Server may not use Vault token sent by clients using a X-CONFIG-TOKEN header when making requests to Vault.
Your application may be affected by this if the following are true:
  *  You have Spring Vault on the classpath of your Spring Cloud Config Server and
  *  You are using the X-CONFIG-TOKEN header to send a Vault token to the Spring Cloud Config Server for the Config Server to use when making requests to Vault and
  *  You are using the default Spring Vault SessionManager implementation LifecycleAwareSessionManager or a SessionManager implementation that persists the Vault token such as SimpleSessionManager.

In this case the SessionManager persists the first token it retrieves and will continue to use that token even if client requests to the Spring Cloud Config Server include a X-CONFIG-TOKEN header with a different value.
Affected Spring Products and Versions
Spring Cloud Config:
  *  2.2.1.RELEASE - 4.2.1

Mitigation
Users of affected versions should upgrade to the corresponding fixed version.

Affected version(s)Fix versionAvailability4.2.x4.2.2OSS4.1.x4.1.6OSS4.0.x4.0.10Commercial3.1.x3.1.10Commercial3.0.x4.1.6OSS2.2.x4.1.6OSS
NOTE: Spring Cloud Config 3.0.x and 2.2.x are no longer under open source or commercial support. Users of these versions are encouraged to upgrade to a supported version.

No other mitigation steps are necessary.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-22232?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-22232?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-22232 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-22232 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-22232 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-22232 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-22232 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Spring Cloud Config, published on 10 Apr 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-22232 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Spring Cloud Config. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-22232/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-22232/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-22232
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-22232
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-22232

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-22232/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.