Spring Boot has an Authentication Bypass under Actuator Health groups paths

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

8.2 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

EPSS

• CVE-2026-22731: 0.34% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 27.50 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

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.

Published by the source

20 Mar 2026, 00:31 UTC

Last modified by the source

16 Apr 2026, 21:58 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 16:45 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2026-22731

Advisory: Spring Boot has an Authentication Bypass under Actuator Health groups paths
IDs: CVE-2026-22731, GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2026-22731 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 16:45 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.2)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Partial vendor fix; fixed versions by package: org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator 4.0.4, 3.5.12. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Maven org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator: affected >= 3.4.0, <= 3.4.13; >= 3.5.0, < 3.5.12; >= 4.0.0-M1, < 4.0.4; fixed in 3.5.12, 4.0.4

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Maven org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
No complete vendor fix is recorded. Follow the primary source's mitigation guidance and check this record again before closing anything.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-8hfc-fq58-r658 lists affected ranges: Maven org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator >=3.4.0 =3.5.0 =4.0.0-M1 <4.0.4)

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