Description

VMware Tanzu's Spring team has published security fixes for two critical vulnerabilities that impact the Spring Cloud Gateway and Spring Framework. Identified as CVE-2025-41253 and CVE-2025-41254, these vulnerabilities potentially result in the disclosure of sensitive information and unauthorized injection of WebSocket messages, both of which affect open-source and commercial versions. CVE-2025-41253 impacts applications that utilize Spring Cloud Gateway Server Webflux and occurs due to insecure usage of Spring Expression Language (SpEL) in route definitions. A system is exposed if it supports admin or third-party route definitions with SpEL, has enabled the `gateway` actuator endpoint, and does not have secure endpoint protection. Attackers would be able to utilize the actuator to fetch environment variables or system properties and reveal API keys, tokens, or credentials. Versions in the range 3.1.x through 4.3.x are impacted, but solutions exist in versions 4.3.2, 4.2.6 (OSS), 4.1.12, and 3.1.12 (Commercial). For temporary relief, users can eliminate 'gateway' from the actuator exposure settings or lock down the endpoints. CVE-2025-41254 attacks the Spring Framework's STOMP over WebSocket feature. It enables attackers to evade CSRF security and transmit unauthorized messages in real-time applications like live chat, financial dashboards, or IoT systems. The vulnerability exists in versions 5.3.0 – 5.3.45, 6.0.x – 6.0.29, 6.1.0 – 6.1.23, and 6.2.0 – 6.2.11. Patches are present in 6.2.12 (OSS), 6.1.24, and 5.3.46 (Commercial). Developers utilizing impacted versions should strongly consider upgrading to the most current patched releases. For those who cannot upgrade at the moment, securing actuator endpoints and disabling dangerous configurations can minimize the attack surface.