LiveActive security incident?Get immediate response
CVE Record

CVE-2020-5407: Signature Wrapping Vulnerability with spring-security-saml2-service-provider

Spring Security versions 5.2.x prior to 5.2.4 and 5.3.x prior to 5.3.2 contain a signature wrapping vulnerability during SAML response validation. When using the spring-security-saml2-service-provider component, a malicious user can carefully modify an otherwise valid SAML response and append an arbitrary assertion that Spring Security will accept as valid.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
Discuss exposureBack to CVEs
Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

This issue affects some Spring Security SAML login integrations. A malicious user could alter a valid SAML response so the application accepts an added, arbitrary assertion as trusted. In business terms, vulnerable SAML service-provider applications may make authorization decisions from attacker-controlled identity data.

Executive priority

Prioritize remediation for SAML-enabled applications because identity assertions influence user access. Treat external or high-privilege SSO entry points first. No active exploitation is evidenced in the supplied sources.

Technical view

CVE-2020-5407 is a CWE-347 signature-validation weakness in Spring Security 5.2.x before 5.2.4 and 5.3.x before 5.3.2 when using spring-security-saml2-service-provider. The vulnerable validation can accept a modified SAML response containing an appended arbitrary assertion.

Likely exposure

Exposure is limited to applications using Spring Security 5.2 or 5.3 with the spring-security-saml2-service-provider component. Applications not using that SAML service-provider component are not shown affected by the supplied sources.

Exploitation context

The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing, active exploitation, public exploit use, or exploit maturity. The described attack requires submitting a modified otherwise valid SAML response to an affected service-provider application.

Researcher notes

The source bundle gives affected versions and fixed version boundaries but no CVSS, exploit telemetry, or detailed product-specific downstream impact. Validate exposure by dependency version and actual use of the SAML service-provider module.

Mitigation direction

  • Upgrade Spring Security 5.2.x to 5.2.4 or later.
  • Upgrade Spring Security 5.3.x to 5.3.2 or later.
  • Check VMware Tanzu advisory guidance for supported fixed versions.
  • Review downstream vendor advisories for bundled Spring Security dependencies.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory applications using spring-security-saml2-service-provider.
  • Check dependency manifests for Spring Security 5.2.x or 5.3.x.
  • Confirm vulnerable versions are upgraded past the fixed releases.
  • Review SAML authentication paths for reliance on affected Spring Security validation.
Prepared
Confidence
high
Sources
6

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

cwe · low confidence lookup

CWE-347: Exact CWE lookup

Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2020-5407 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

Open ATT&CK lookup
Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
8Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
Spring by VMwareSpring Security5.2, 5.3Listed
Weakness

CWE details

CWE-347

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.

CWE-347 · source CWE mapping

Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature

Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.

Open CWE intelligenceSame-CWE CVEs