CVE-2026-40997: VMware Spring Web Services information disclosure in Spring Security integration

CVE-2026-40997 · Severity: medium · CVSS 5.3 · Published 2026-06-11

Spring Web Services' SOAP security layer leaks detailed account information (such as whether a user account is locked or disabled) to remote clients through error messages, instead of failing with generic authentication errors. This enables attackers to enumerate valid user accounts and infer their operational status without legitimate access, potentially aiding targeted attacks or account discovery.

Technologies: org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security (Maven), VMware Spring Web Services. Vendors: Maven, VMware.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2026-40997 exploited in the wild?
No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-40997 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2026-40997?
Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 5.3, published 11 June 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?
org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security (Maven) ECOSYSTEM:introduced=5.0.0,fixed=5.0.2; VMware Spring Web Services 5.0.0 through 5.0.1; 4.1.0 through 4.1.3; 4.0.0 through 4.0.18; 3.1.0 through 3.1.8, 5.0.0 to 5.0.1, 4.1.0 to 4.1.3, 4.0.0 to 4.0.18, 3.1.0 to 3.1.8.
Is there a fix for CVE-2026-40997?
Yes. org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security (Maven): upgrade to 5.0.2 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2026-40997 attacked?
It is attacked over the network, in a software library.
Am I affected by CVE-2026-40997?
Check whether you run org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security (Maven) or VMware Spring Web Services at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

How to fix

  • org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security (Maven): upgrade to 5.0.2 or later
    # set org.springframework.ws:spring-ws-security to 5.0.2 in your pom.xml or build.gradle

Technical details

The vulnerability is an information disclosure flaw (CWE-209) in Spring WS's integration with Spring Security. Multiple authentication paths—including UsernameToken handling in SpringSecurityPasswordValidationCallbackHandler and X.509 authentication in X509AuthenticationProvider—embedded detailed UserDetails objects and AccountStatusException messages in SOAP fault responses instead of returning generic authentication errors. This allowed remote, unauthenticated SOAP clients to distinguish between invalid credentials, locked accounts, disabled accounts, and expired accounts by examining exception messages and callback outcomes. The fix (committed 2026-04-30) deprecates the leaky SpringSecurityUtils.checkUserValidity method, delegates to Spring Security's AccountStatusUserDetailsChecker for standardized error wording, catches AccountStatusException during token handling, and maps it uniformly to BadCredentialsException with a generic message. Patches are available for versions 5.0.2 and 4.1.4; versions 4.0.x and 3.1.x have no patched releases.

Affected products

  • VMware Spring Web Services 5.0.0 through 5.0.1; 4.1.0 through 4.1.3; 4.0.0 through 4.0.18; 3.1.0 through 3.1.8

Identifiers

  • CVE-2026-40997
  • GHSA-5x25-c2rf-f2jx

Timeline

  • 2026-06-11: disclosed: Published to GitHub Advisory Database
  • 2026-06-09: patched: Fix committed to upstream repository (version 5.0.2 and 4.1.4)

References

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