spring4shell

Operational information regarding the Spring4Shell vulnerability (CVE-2022-22965) in the Spring Core Framework.

• NCSC-NL advisory
• Spring.io announcement of vulnerability
• CISA advisory & CISA known exploited vulnerabilities
• CERT Bund advisory

Repository contents

• README.md: contains general information and detection and mitigation measures
• software/README.md: contains a list of known vulnerable and not vulnerable software.
• services/README.md: contains a list of known vulnerable and not vulnerable services.

NCSC-NL has published a HIGH/HIGH advisory for the Spring4shell vulnerability. Normally we would update a HIGH/HIGH advisory for vulnerable software packages, however due to the expected number of updates we have created a list of known vulnerable software in the software directory.

Mitigation measures

Determine if the Spring Core Framework is used in your network. Ensure that deployments of the Spring Core Framework are running a version equal to or greater than 5.3.18 or 5.2.20. Scanning tools are available to help find vulnerable software (Linux and Windows). You can find them below in the section "Detection". Note: the results of these tools do not guarantee that you do not have vulnerable systems. The requirements for the specific vulnerable scenario in the report published by Spring are as follows:

• Running on JDK 9 or higher
• Apache Tomcat as the Servlet container
• Packaged as a traditional WAR and deployed in a standalone Tomcat instance. Typical Spring Boot deployments using an embedded Servlet container or reactive web server are not impacted.
• spring-webmvc or spring-webflux dependency.
• Spring Framework versions 5.3.0 to 5.3.17, 5.2.0 to 5.2.19, and older versions.

Ask your suppliers if they use Spring Core Framework in their applications. Check for critical systems if your vendor has published a patch and deploy this as soon as possible.

If updating is not possible in the short term, check the original Spring.io advisory for possible workarounds. If you are unable to apply these workarounds, we advise to consider shutting down the system until a patch becomes available.

This GitHub page contains a list which is kept up-to-date by NCSC-NL. It can provide you with information about which vendors have published a patch. However, we advise you to monitor information provided by your software vendors as well.

• Check your logs, vulnerable systems and systems that have already been patched for signs of compromise.
• Monitor future updates on Spring4Shell.

Mitigation by vendors

Vendor	Product	Type	Link
Akamai	KSD	WAF	https://www.akamai.com/blog/security/spring-core-spring4shell-zero-day
Cisco	AMP	Endpoint	https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2022/03/threat-advisory-spring4shell.html
Cisco	Secure Email	Mail protection	https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2022/03/threat-advisory-spring4shell.html
Cisco	Secure Firewall	IPS	https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2022/03/threat-advisory-spring4shell.html
Cisco	Malware Analytics	Malware Analysis	https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2022/03/threat-advisory-spring4shell.html
Cisco	Secure Web Appliance	WAF	https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2022/03/threat-advisory-spring4shell.html
Citrix	WAF	WAF	https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2022/04/01/guidance-for-reducing-spring4shell-security-vulnerability-risk-with-citrix-waf/
Cloudflare	WAF	WAF	https://blog.cloudflare.com/waf-mitigations-sping4shell/
F5	Big-IP	WAF	https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K24912123
Fortinet	FortiGate	IPS	https://www.fortiguard.com/outbreak-alert/spring4shell-vulnerability
Fortinet	FortiSASE	IPS	https://www.fortiguard.com/outbreak-alert/spring4shell-vulnerability
Fortinet	FortiADC	IPS	https://www.fortiguard.com/outbreak-alert/spring4shell-vulnerability
Fortinet	FortiProxy	IPS	https://www.fortiguard.com/outbreak-alert/spring4shell-vulnerability
Fortinet	FortiAnalyzer	Outbreak Detection	https://www.fortiguard.com/outbreak-alert/spring4shell-vulnerability
HAProxy	HAProxy	WAF	https://www.haproxy.com/blog/april-2022-cve-2022-22965-spring4shell-remote-code-execution-mitigation/
Symantec	multiple products	IPS	https://symantec-enterprise-blogs.security.com/blogs/threat-intelligence/spring4shell-rce-vuln-java
Microsoft	Azure Firewall Premium	IPS	https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/04/04/springshell-rce-vulnerability-guidance-for-protecting-against-and-detecting-cve-2022-22965/
Microsoft	Defender / Sentinel	Endpoint	https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/04/04/springshell-rce-vulnerability-guidance-for-protecting-against-and-detecting-cve-2022-22965/
PaloAltoNetworks	Next-Generation Firewall	IPS	https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/cve-2022-22965-springshell/
PaloAltoNetworks	Prisma Cloud	Endpoint	https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/prisma-cloud/recent-spring-vulnerabilities/
Trend Micro	Cloud One	IPS	https://success.trendmicro.com/dcx/s/solution/000290730?language=en_US
Trend Micro	Deep Discovery Inspector	IDS/IPS	https://success.trendmicro.com/dcx/s/solution/000290730?language=en_US
Rapid7	tCell	WAF	https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/2022/03/30/spring4shell-zero-day-vulnerability-in-spring-framework/#april120223pmedt

Detection

This table contains an overview of local and remote scanning tools regarding the Spring4shell vulnerability and helps to find vulnerable software.

NCSC-NL has not verified the scanning tools listed below and therefore cannot guarantee the validity of said tools. However NCSC-NL strives to provide scanning tools from reliable sources.

Note	Links
jfrog Spring tools	https://github.com/jfrog/jfrog-spring-tools
Hilko Bengen - Local Spring vulnerability scanner	https://github.com/hillu/local-spring-vuln-scanner
Remco Verhoef - Spring4shell scanner	https://github.com/dtact/spring4shell-scanner
Tenable Nessus Spring4shell vulnerability scanner	https://www.tenable.com/blog/spring4shell-faq-spring-framework-remote-code-execution-vulnerability
Qualys Scanner/Cloud Agent	https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-threat-research/2022/03/31/spring-framework-zero-day-remote-code-execution-spring4shell-vulnerability, https://github.com/Qualys/spring4scanwin
Rapid7 Nexpose/InsightVM	https://docs.rapid7.com/insightvm/spring4shell/
Acunetix	https://www.acunetix.com/blog/web-security-zone/critical-alert-spring4shell-rce-cve-2022-22965-in-spring/
Nuclei Spring4shell template	https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/master/cves/2022/CVE-2022-22965.yaml
Whitesource/spring4shell-detect	https://github.com/whitesource/spring4shell-detect
onurgule/S4S-Scanner (Burp extension)	https://github.com/onurgule/S4S-Scanner
gpiechnik2 - Spring4shell scanner (nse script)	https://github.com/gpiechnik2/nmap-spring4shell
OWASP ZAP Spring4shell rule	https://www.zaproxy.org/blog/2022-04-04-spring4shell-detection-with-zap/

The following IPs were observed as scanning IPs for this vulnerability:

Note	Links
GreyNoise	Scanning IPs

The following hashes were observed:

Note	Links
Nextron-systems	Spring-core-rce-attempt
Nextron-systems	Spring-core-after-exploitation

The following detection rules are available:

Note	Links
Yara rules - Neo23x0	https://github.com/Neo23x0/signature-base/blob/master/yara/expl_spring4shell.yar
Splunk queries - West-wind	https://github.com/west-wind/Spring4Shell-Detection
ET Suricata rules (EXPLOIT Possible SpringCore RCE/Spring4Shell)	https://rules.emergingthreats.net/open/suricata-5.0/rules/emerging-exploit.rules
Cisco SNORT (SID 30790-30793, 59388, and 59416)	https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2022/03/threat-advisory-spring4shell.html

Contributions welcome

If you have any additional information to share relevant to the Spring4shell vulnerability, please feel free to open a Pull request. New to this? Read how to contribute in GitHub's documentation.