Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Network-reachable mTLS endpoint (AV:N, AC:L); attacker must hold a CA-signed client cert with controlled CN (PR:L); full impersonation yields C:H/I:H, no service disruption (A:N).
Primary rating from Vendor (vmware).
CVSS VectorNVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Lifecycle Timeline
7Blast Radius
ecosystem impact- 1,100 maven packages depend on org.springframework.security:spring-security-web (439 direct, 661 indirect)
Ecosystem-wide dependent count for version 6.5.0.
DescriptionNVD
SubjectDnX509PrincipalExtractor does not correctly handle certain malformed X.509 certificate CN values, which can lead to reading the wrong value for the username. In a carefully crafted certificate, this can lead to an attacker impersonating another user.
Affected versions: Spring Security 5.7.0 through 5.7.24; 5.8.0 through 5.8.26; 6.3.0 through 6.3.17; 6.4.0 through 6.4.17; 6.5.0 through 6.5.10.
AnalysisAI
Authentication bypass via X.509 certificate impersonation in Spring Security affects versions 5.7.0-5.7.24, 5.8.0-5.8.26, 6.3.0-6.3.17, 6.4.0-6.4.17, and 6.5.0-6.5.10, where the SubjectDnX509PrincipalExtractor mishandles malformed Common Name (CN) values and resolves the principal to the wrong identity. An attacker holding a carefully crafted client certificate can authenticate as a different legitimate user, gaining their privileges. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the EPSS score of 0.02% (4th percentile) reflects no observed exploitation activity.
Technical ContextAI
Spring Security is the de-facto authentication and authorization framework for Java applications built on the Spring ecosystem, including Spring Boot REST APIs and MVC web apps. The vulnerable component, SubjectDnX509PrincipalExtractor, is the default extractor used when applications enable mutual TLS / X.509 client-certificate authentication; it parses the Subject Distinguished Name from a presented certificate and extracts a field (typically CN) as the username that is then mapped to a UserDetails record. The root cause maps to CWE-287 (Improper Authentication): the parsing logic does not correctly normalize or escape certain malformed CN values, so a CN containing crafted delimiters, embedded RDN-like sequences, or special characters is interpreted as a different principal string than the certificate's true subject. Per CPE, all affected releases are tracked under cpe:2.3:a:vmware:spring_security and the issue was disclosed by VMware/Broadcom (security@vmware.com).
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patches are available: upgrade to Spring Security 5.7.25, 5.8.27, 6.3.18, 6.4.18, or 6.5.11 per your maintenance branch, as listed in the EUVD record and the Spring advisory at https://spring.io/security/cve-2026-47838. If immediate patching is not possible, the most effective compensating control is to replace SubjectDnX509PrincipalExtractor with a SubjectX500PrincipalExtractor or a custom X509PrincipalExtractor that resolves the principal from a stable, non-CN attribute (for example the certificate serial number or a fingerprint) - this avoids the CN parsing path entirely but requires updating any downstream UserDetails lookup keyed on CN. Tightening the trusted CA list so only an internal CA (which strictly validates CN values at issuance) can sign client certificates also blocks the practical attack path, at the cost of breaking external-PKI federation. Audit recent successful X.509 logins for CN values containing unusual punctuation, escape sequences, or embedded RDN separators to identify possible exploitation attempts.
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Same weakness CWE-287 – Improper Authentication
View allSame technique Authentication Bypass
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-35911
GHSA-293q-567p-wmwq