CVE-2026-41695: Spring Data Unbounded Property-path Cache Keyed By Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-88fw-v6x4-3f58",
  "modified" : "2026-07-31T16:44:15Z",
  "published" : "2026-07-31T16:44:15Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-41695" ],
  "summary" : "Spring Data: Unbounded property-path cache keyed by externally-supplied path string",
  "details" : "`src/main/java/org/springframework/data/mapping/context/PersistentPropertyPathFactory.java:175` · Unbounded Resource Allocation (Algorithmic DoS)\n\n### Impact\n\nWhen a consuming module routes user-supplied dot-paths (sort parameters, projection paths, PATCH paths) through `MappingContext.getPersistentPropertyPath(String, Class)`, each distinct string — including invalid ones — is cached forever. A remote attacker can send millions of requests with unique `?sort=aaaa<n>` values and grow the heap until the service OOMs.\n\n### Description\n\n`PersistentPropertyPathFactory.propertyPaths` (line 53) is a `ConcurrentHashMap<TypeAndPath, PathResolution>` populated by `getPotentiallyCachedPath()` (line 174-177) via `computeIfAbsent`. The key is `(TypeInformation, rawPathString)`. Crucially, unresolvable paths are also cached (as `PathResolution.unresolved`, line 204) so that the same `InvalidPersistentPropertyPath` can be re-thrown — meaning every distinct garbage string an attacker sends creates a permanent entry. There is no eviction. This is reachable from `AbstractMappingContext.getPersistentPropertyPath(String, Class)` (`AbstractMappingContext.java:345`), which Spring Data REST and several store query mappers call with HTTP-request-derived sort/filter property names.\n\nBy contrast, the sibling `SimplePropertyPath.cache` was already hardened to use `ConcurrentReferenceHashMap` (soft refs); this cache was not given the same treatment.\n\n### Exploit scenario\n\nAgainst a Spring Data REST endpoint, an attacker scripts `GET /things?sort=<random-40-char-string>` in a loop. Each request fails fast with `InvalidPersistentPropertyPath`, but each distinct random string leaves behind a `TypeAndPath` key, a `PathResolution` object holding the split segments list, and the source string in the map. After ~10M requests the JVM OOMs.\n\n### Preconditions\n\n- A downstream component (Spring Data REST, a store-specific `QueryMapper`, or application code) passes externally-supplied strings to `MappingContext.getPersistentPropertyPath(String, ...)`\n- No upstream rate-limiting or path-string validation\n\n### How to fix\n\nA cache whose key can be derived from external input must be bounded. Replace `propertyPaths` (line 53) with a `ConcurrentLruCache<TypeAndPath, PathResolution>` of fixed capacity, or `ConcurrentReferenceHashMap` (matching the sibling `SimplePropertyPath.cache`). Additionally, do not cache `PathResolution.unresolved` results at all (line 204 in `createPersistentPropertyPath`) — re-computing a failed lookup is cheap, and caching negative results for arbitrary attacker strings is what makes this exploitable.\n\n### Adversarial verification\n\n**Verdict:** TRUE_POSITIVE (confidence: 7/10) — unbounded hard-ref `ConcurrentHashMap` keyed by raw path string, caches unresolved entries (line 204), reachable via public `MappingContext.getPersistentPropertyPath(String, ...)`; sibling `PropertyPath` cache was already converted to soft-refs but this one was missed. -3 confidence because the HTTP-input wiring lives in downstream modules (Spring Data REST / store mappers), not verifiable in this repo.\n\n**Code at the line — CONFIRMED**\n- Line 53: `private final Map<TypeAndPath, PathResolution> propertyPaths = new ConcurrentHashMap<>();` — plain CHM, hard refs, no eviction, no size bound.\n- Line 175: `propertyPaths.computeIfAbsent(TypeAndPath.of(type, propertyPath), ...)` — every distinct `(type, string)` pair is inserted.\n- Line 204: `return PathResolution.unresolved(parts, segment, type, currentPath);` — returned from inside `computeIfAbsent`'s mapping function, so unresolvable paths are cached. The `PathResolution` retains the full attacker string (`source = StringUtils.collectionToDelimitedString(parts, \".\")`, line 452).\n\n**Callers within spring-data-commons**\n- `AbstractMappingContext.getPersistentPropertyPath(String, Class<?>)` (line 345) and `(String, TypeInformation<?>)` (line 350) → `persistentPropertyPathFactory.from(type, propertyPath)` → straight into the unbounded cache. No validation, no `PropertyPath.from` gate.\n- This is the public `MappingContext` interface (`MappingContext.java:174,186`), documented to throw `InvalidPersistentPropertyPath` on bad input — i.e., the contract explicitly anticipates being called with possibly-invalid strings.\n- No in-repo caller routes HTTP input directly into the `String` overload. The `Sort.Order.property` → `getPersistentPropertyPath(String, ...)` bridge lives in store modules (Spring Data MongoDB `QueryMapper`, Spring Data REST sort translator). That wiring is out-of-repo as the finding states.\n\n**Protections — NONE on this cache**\nContrast: `SimplePropertyPath.java:52` (the `PropertyPath.from` cache) uses `ConcurrentReferenceHashMap` (soft refs, GC-evictable). Spring already hardened the sibling cache against exactly this pattern. `PersistentPropertyPathFactory.propertyPaths` was not given the same treatment.\n\n**Stress-test**\nIs this exclusion #3 (intended design)? The `PathResolution` javadoc (line 426-430) says caching unresolved paths is deliberate — to make repeated lookups of the *same* bad path cheap. But unbounded hard-ref caching of *arbitrary attacker-chosen* keys is not the intent; the sibling fix proves Spring considers this a bug class.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Maven",
      "name" : "org.springframework.data:spring-data-commons"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "4.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "4.0.6"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 4.0.5"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Maven",
      "name" : "org.springframework.data:spring-data-commons"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "3.5.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "3.5.12"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 3.5.11"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Maven",
      "name" : "org.springframework.data:spring-data-commons"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "3.4.0"
      }, {
        "last_affected" : "3.4.13"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/spring-projects/security-advisories/security/advisories/GHSA-88fw-v6x4-3f58"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41695"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-data-commons/commit/96e9475b963218bb702959524187342671f6b080"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-data-commons/commit/a4f893b66c18c70f2b22f29a2b55097b73c89941"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/spring-projects/security-advisories"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-data-commons/releases/tag/3.5.12"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-data-commons/releases/tag/4.0.6"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://spring.io/security/cve-2026-41695"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-400" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-07-31T16:44:15Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-06-10T00:16:50Z"
  }
}