VMware Spring Boot up to 3.4.14/3.5.10/4.0.2 Actuator Health Group authentication bypass

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in VMware Spring Boot up to 3.4.14/3.5.10/4.0.2 and classified as critical. This affects an unknown function of the component Actuator Health Group Handler. This manipulation causes authentication bypass. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-22731. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in VMware Spring Boot up to 3.4.14/3.5.10/4.0.2. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown part of the component Actuator Health Group Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a authentication bypass vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-288. A product requires authentication, but the product has an alternate path or channel that does not require authentication. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Spring Boot applications with Actuator can be vulnerable to an "Authentication Bypass" vulnerability when an application endpoint that requires authentication is declared under a specific path, already configured for a Health Group additional path. This issue affects Spring Boot: from 4.0 before 4.0.3, from 3.5 before 3.5.11, from 3.4 before 3.4.15. This CVE is similar but not equivalent to CVE-2026-22733, as the conditions for exploit and vulnerable versions are different.

The advisory is shared at spring.io. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-22731 since 01/09/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 05/15/2026).

Upgrading to version 3.4.15, 3.5.11 or 4.0.3 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0799). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• VMware Tanzu Spring Boot

Productinfo

Vendor

• VMware

Name

• Spring Boot

Version

• 3.4.0
• 3.4.1
• 3.4.2
• 3.4.3
• 3.4.4
• 3.4.5
• 3.4.6
• 3.4.7
• 3.4.8
• 3.4.9
• 3.4.10
• 3.4.11
• 3.4.12
• 3.4.13
• 3.4.14
• 3.5.0
• 3.5.1
• 3.5.2
• 3.5.3
• 3.5.4
• 3.5.5
• 3.5.6
• 3.5.7
• 3.5.8
• 3.5.9
• 3.5.10
• 4.0.0
• 4.0.1
• 4.0.2

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.vmware.com/

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Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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