Summary
Cross-Site Request Forgery in Spring Framework
The SourceHttpMessageConverter in Spring MVC in Spring Framework before 3.2.5 and 4.0.0.M1 through 4.0.0.RC1 does not disable external entity resolution, which allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files, cause a denial of service, and conduct CSRF attacks via crafted XML, aka an XML External Entity (XXE) issue, and a different vulnerability than CVE-2013-4152 and CVE-2013-7315.
Impact
A victim's authenticated browser session is used to submit forged requests to an application that cannot distinguish them from legitimate ones. Typical impact: state-changing actions performed as the victim without their consent.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2013-6429? CVE-2013-6429 is a medium-severity cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in org.springframework:spring-web (maven), affecting versions <= 3.2.4.RELEASE. It is fixed in 3.2.5.RELEASE. A victim's authenticated browser session is used to submit forged requests to an application that cannot distinguish them from legitimate ones.
- Which versions of org.springframework:spring-web are affected by CVE-2013-6429? org.springframework:spring-web (maven) versions <= 3.2.4.RELEASE is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2013-6429? Yes. CVE-2013-6429 is fixed in 3.2.5.RELEASE. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2013-6429 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2013-6429 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2013-6429 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2013-6429? Upgrade
org.springframework:spring-webto 3.2.5.RELEASE or later.