CVE-2026-41720 Authentication Bypass with Empty Password in Spring LDAP
Attackers can bypass authentication in Spring LDAP by providing a valid username with an empty or null password, gaining unauthorized access.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-41720?
CVE-2026-41720 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Spring LDAP, published on 9 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Spring LDAP's DirContextAuthenticationStrategy implementations do not reject a bind request where a non-empty username is paired with an empty or null password.
Affected versions: Spring LDAP 2.4.0 through 2.4.4; 3.2.0 through 3.2.17; 3.3.0 through 3.3.7; 4.0.0 through 4.0.3.
Weakness: CWE-287
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-41720?
8 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core Maven | All versions to 2.4.4 | None |
org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core Maven | All versions to 2.4.4 | None |
org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core Maven | From 3.2.0 to 3.2.16 | None |
org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core Maven | From 3.2.0 to 3.2.16 | None |
org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core Maven | From 3.3.0 | 3.3.8 |
org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core Maven | From 3.3.0 | 3.3.8 |
2 more packages
org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core Maven | From 4.0.0 | 4.0.4 |
org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core Maven | From 4.0.0 | 4.0.4 |
How do I fix CVE-2026-41720?
Upgrade org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core to a fixed version for your release line: 3.3.8 or 4.0.4.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2026-41720 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-41720 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as CLEANSTART-2026-EX93158, CLEANSTART-2026-GT33551, CLSA-2026-1782176232, CLSA-2026-1788782659, CLSA-2026-1789146534, CLSA-2026-1789400252 and 10 more.