Timing Attack in Spring Security

Executive Summary

This is a timing attack vulnerability where Spring Security components compare sensitive values like passwords or tokens using standard string equality checks instead of constant-time methods. This allows attackers to measure response times to guess secrets by observing timing differences when values are rejected.

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Detection Guidance

Detecting this vulnerability requires monitoring for timing discrepancies in authentication responses. Use network tools like Wireshark to capture and analyze response times for DigestAuthenticationFilter, KeyBasedPersistenceTokenService, or password encoder endpoints. Look for variations in response times when submitting incorrect credentials or tokens.

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Impact Analysis

An attacker could exploit this to recover secrets such as passwords, authentication digests, or tokens by sending many requests and measuring response times. This could lead to impersonation or unauthorized access to systems using affected Spring Security versions.

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Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade to the latest fixed versions of Spring Security immediately: 5.7.26, 5.8.28, 6.4.19, 6.5.12, 7.0.7, or 7.1.1. If upgrading is not possible, disable affected components like DigestAuthenticationFilter or use alternative implementations with constant-time comparison methods.

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