CriticalCVE-2022-22965

    Spring Framework JDK 9+ Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2022-22965)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: SingCERT, Siemens ProductCERT, CVE.org, OSV, BSI

    What is affected, what to do

    This vulnerability allows an attacker to perform remote code execution (RCE) on applications running on JDK 9+ using Spring MVC or Spring WebFlux when deployed as a WAR on Tomcat. The vulnerability is actively exploited and listed in the CISA KEV. Affected products include versions of `spring-beans` from 4.3.20.RELEASE to 4.3.27.RELEASE. It is critical to update applications to the latest versions to mitigate this risk, as exploitation methods are broad.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update cx_cloud_agent to version 2.1.0, mysql_enterprise_monitor to version 8.0.29, operation_scheduler to version 2.0.4. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Spring Framework eq Spring Framework versions 5.3.X prior to 5.3.18+, 5.2.x prior to 5.2.20+ and all old and unsupported versions..Spring Framework versions 5.3.X prior to 5.3.18+, 5.2.x prior to 5.2.20+ and all old and unsupported versions

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: SingCERT, Siemens ProductCERT, CVE.org, OSV, BSI

    99.64 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.95

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    229.57 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    99.64 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.95
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-94

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    The flaw is network-reachable without authentication and yields direct RCE on the application server, typically via a persistent JSP webshell dropped through a hijacked AccessLogValve. It is among the most heavily exploited CVEs of recent years and is weaponised at scale by mass scanners, opportunistic botnets (Mirai variants) and crypto-mining crews; CISA does not currently flag confirmed ransomware use, but that does not lower the urgency. Rank assets strictly by exposure: internet-facing Tomcat WAR deployments on JDK 9+ are P1 (patch or take offline within 24 h), while internal Spring Boot fat JARs are P2 (patch in the next maintenance window, since the published PoC does not apply). Oracle and Cisco appliances embedding Spring Framework follow the vendor patch path and should be updated promptly after the respective advisory lands.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Upgrade Spring Framework to 5.3.18+ or 5.2.20+; migrate or decommission unsupported branches (5.0.x, 5.1.x, 4.x). Bump Spring Boot to 2.6.6 / 2.5.12 or higher, which bundle the patched Spring versions.
      • Inventory every Java web application and prioritise WAR deployments on Apache Tomcat running under JDK 9+. Spring Boot fat JARs with embedded Tomcat are not vulnerable to the public PoC per vendor guidance, but still require patching because the underlying flaw is broader.
      • For Oracle and Cisco products (Commerce Platform 11.3.2, Communications Cloud Native Core Suite 22.1.x / 1.9.0, CX Cloud Agent 2.1.0): consult the vendor advisories (Oracle CPU April 2022, Cisco PSIRT) and apply the referenced patches.
      • Interim workaround without patch: register a global @ControllerAdvice that extends the DataBinder's disallowedFields with class.*, Class.*, *.class.*, *.Class.* (official Spring workaround). Verify the deployment immediately after rollout.
      • Place internet-exposed Tomcat/Spring instances behind a WAF or take them offline until the patch or workaround is confirmed. Block external access to management ports 8080, 8443 and AJP 8009 at the perimeter firewall.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • WAF / reverse-proxy rule: block and log HTTP requests whose parameters contain class., Class., .class., .Class.module.classLoader, classLoader.resources.context.parent.pipeline.first.pattern or base64 / URL-encoded variants. Cover query string, form-urlencoded body, multipart body and headers.
      • Tomcat hardening: enrich AccessLogValve logging to detect pattern / suffix / prefix / fileDateFormat tampering; restrict the Tomcat service account's write permissions on webapps/ROOT/ and the log directory to the minimum required.
      • Network segmentation: isolate the application tier into dedicated VLANs; apply default-deny egress from app servers and allow only defined backend destinations. This breaks reverse-shell and second-stage payload fetches.
      • JVM least privilege: never run Tomcat as root; grant filesystem write access only where required; enable SELinux or AppArmor profiles for the Tomcat process.
      • Runtime protection: deploy a RASP agent or EDR with a Java hook that detects and blocks java.lang.Runtime.exec, ProcessBuilder.start and JSP writes triggered from a request context.
      • Build pipeline: integrate SCA tooling (OWASP Dependency-Check, Snyk, Trivy) as a fail-closed gate in CI/CD so vulnerable Spring versions are rejected at build time.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Web access logs (Tomcat / NGINX / Apache): hunt for class.module.classLoader, Class.module.classLoader, springboot-help or newly appearing .jsp paths under webapps/ROOT/. KQL example: W3CIISLog | where csUriQuery has_any ("class.module.classLoader","Class.module.classLoader").
      • Filesystem monitoring: alert on newly created or modified .jsp files under $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/ROOT/ or the configured log path. Auditd rule: -w /opt/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/ -p wa -k tomcat_webshell.
      • Sysmon / EDR: process ancestry java.exe or java spawning cmd.exe, /bin/sh, powershell.exe or bash. Sigma shape: parent_image|endswith: java and image|endswith: cmd.exe, sh, bash, powershell.exe.
      • Network (Zeek / Suricata): enable the ET Open signatures for CVE-2022-22965 (SIDs 2035760-2035763); alert on POST bodies containing classloader keywords and on unexpected outbound connections from app servers.
      • Tomcat AccessLogValve tampering: monitor runtime configuration changes to pattern, suffix, prefix, directory and fileDateFormat; any such change without a corresponding change ticket is a high-severity alert.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    A Spring MVC or Spring WebFlux application running on JDK 9+ may be vulnerable to remote code execution (RCE) via data binding. The specific exploit requires the application to run on Tomcat as a WAR deployment. If the application is deployed as a Spring Boot executable jar, i.e. the default, it is not vulnerable to the exploit. However, the nature of the vulnerability is more general, and there may be other ways to exploit it.

    Source: CSA/SingCERT, siemens_advisory, NVD (NIST), OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE), BSI WID Portal, BSI CSAF

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    —Spring Framework
    • Spring Framework versions 5.3.X prior to 5.3.18+, 5.2.x prior to 5.2.20+ and all old and unsupported versions
    • —
    ciscocx_cloud_agent
    • < 2.1.0
    • 2.1.0
    oraclecommerce_platform
    • 11.3.2
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_automated_test_suite
    • 1.9.0
    • 22.1.0
    • —
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_binding_support_function
    • 22.1.3
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_console
    • 22.1.0
    • 1.9.0
    • —
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_network_exposure_function
    • 22.1.0
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_network_function_cloud_native_environment
    • 1.10.0
    • 22.1.0
    • —
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_network_repository_function
    • 22.1.0
    • 1.15.0
    • —
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_network_slice_selection_function
    • 1.15.0
    • 1.8.0
    • 22.1.0
    • —
    • —
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_policy
    • 1.15.0
    • 22.1.0
    • —
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_security_edge_protection_proxy
    • 22.1.0
    • 1.7.0
    • —
    • —
    oraclecommunications_cloud_native_core_unified_data_repository
    • 1.15.0
    • 22.1.0
    • —
    • —
    oraclecommunications_policy_management
    • 12.6.0.0.0
    • —
    oraclecommunications_unified_inventory_management
    • 7.4.2
    • 7.5.0
    • 7.4.1
    • —
    • —
    • —
    oraclefinancial_services_analytical_applications_infrastructure
    • 8.1.1
    • 8.1.2.0
    • —
    • —
    oraclefinancial_services_behavior_detection_platform
    • 8.1.2.0
    • 8.1.1.0
    • 8.1.1.1
    • —
    • —
    • —
    oraclefinancial_services_enterprise_case_management
    • 8.1.1.1
    • 8.1.2.0
    • 8.1.1.0
    • —
    • —
    • —
    oraclemysql_enterprise_monitor
    • < 8.0.29
    • 8.0.29
    oracleproduct_lifecycle_analytics
    • 3.6.1
    • —
    oracleretail_bulk_data_integration
    • 16.0.3
    • —
    oracleretail_customer_management_and_segmentation_foundation
    • 19.0
    • 18.0
    • 17.0
    • —
    • —
    • —
    oracleretail_financial_integration
    • 14.1.3.2
    • 16.0.3
    • 15.0.3.1
    • 19.0.1
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    oracleretail_integration_bus
    • 16.0.3
    • 19.0.1
    • 14.1.3.2
    • 15.0.3.1
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-94Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

      Base

      The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-94

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited
    Packet StormSpring4Shell Code Execution (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Packet StormSpring4Shell Spring Framework Class Property Remote Code Execution (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)vulhub-spring-cve-2022-22965 (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)Spring4Shell-POC (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)spring4shell-local-verification-lab (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)CVE-2022-22965 (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)jfrog-apptrust-demo (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)PoC-CVE-2022-22965-Spring4Shell (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)Spring4Shell-CTF (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)CVE-2022-22965 (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified

    References & sources

    • NVD (NIST)vuln/detail/CVE-2022-22965advisory
    • github.comspring-projects/spring-framework/commit/002546b3e4b8d791ea6accc…web
    • Siemens ProductCERTproductcert/pdf/ssa-254054.pdfweb, x_refsource_CONFIRM, Patch, Third-party advisory
    • github.comspring-projects/spring-boot/releases/tag/v2.5.12web
    • github.comspring-projects/spring-boot/releases/tag/v2.6.6web
    • github.comspring-projects/spring-frameworkpackage
    • github.comspring-projects/spring-framework/releases/tag/v5.2.20.RELEASEweb
    • github.comspring-projects/spring-framework/releases/tag/v5.3.18web
    • psirt.global.sonicwall.comvuln-detail/SNWLID-2022-0005web, x_refsource_CONFIRM, Third-party advisory
    • spring.ioblog/2022/03/31/spring-framework-rce-early-announcementweb
    • tanzu.vmware.comsecurity/cve-2022-22965web, x_refsource_MISC, Mitigation, Vendor advisory
    • tools.cisco.com20220401 Vulnerability in Spring Framework Affecting Cisco Products: March 2022web, Vendor advisory, x_refsource_CISCO, Third-party advisory
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2022-22965web, government-resource, US government resource
    • kb.cert.orgvuls/id/970766web, US government resource
    • oracle.comsecurity-alerts/cpuapr2022.htmlweb, x_refsource_MISC, Third-party advisory
    • oracle.comsecurity-alerts/cpujul2022.htmlweb, x_refsource_MISC, Patch, Third-party advisory
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/166713/Spring4Shell-Code-Execution.htmlweb, x_refsource_MISC, Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/167011/Spring4Shell-Spring-Framework-Class-Property-Remot…web, x_refsource_MISC, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database

    Linked advisories

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    Badge preview for CVE-2022-22965
    <a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2022-22965"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2022-22965.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2022-22965 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>