CVE-2025-41242: 
Apache Log4j vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A path traversal vulnerability (CVE-2025-41242) was discovered in Spring Framework MVC applications when deployed on non-compliant Servlet containers. The vulnerability was disclosed on August 14, 2025, affecting Spring Framework versions 5.3.0-5.3.43, 6.0.0-6.0.29, 6.1.0-6.1.21, and 6.2.0-6.2.9. The issue was identified by security researchers 1ue and b1u3r from Vidar-Team, along with Joakim Erdfelt from Webtide (Spring Security).

The vulnerability occurs when three specific conditions are met: the application is deployed as a WAR or with an embedded Servlet container, the Servlet container does not reject suspicious sequences, and the application serves static resources with Spring resource handling. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.9 (Medium) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N, indicating network accessibility with high attack complexity (Spring Security, NVD).

The vulnerability could potentially lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information through path traversal attacks. However, popular Servlet containers like Apache Tomcat and Eclipse Jetty are not vulnerable when using their default security features (Spring Security).

Users are strongly recommended to upgrade to the fixed versions: 6.2.10 (OSS), 6.1.22 (Commercial), or 5.3.44 (Commercial). Version 6.0.x is out of support and has no fix available. Commercial customers using Spring Boot 2.7, 3.1, or 3.2 can utilize Spring Boot Hotfix releases 2.7.28.1, 3.2.17.1, and 3.3.14.1 (Spring Blog).