What are the most common security vulnerabilities in Spring web application frameworks?

1 Cross-site scripting (XSS)

XSS is a type of attack that injects malicious code into web pages that are viewed by other users. This can compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your web application and its data. To prevent XSS, you should always validate and sanitize user input, escape output, and use content security policy (CSP) headers. Spring provides some built-in features to help you with XSS protection, such as the @EnableWebSecurity annotation, the th:utext attribute in Thymeleaf templates, and the HtmlUtils.htmlEscape() method.

2 Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)

CSRF is a type of attack that tricks users into performing actions on your web application that they did not intend to. This can result in unauthorized data access, modification, or deletion. To prevent CSRF, you should always use stateful tokens or headers to verify the origin and authenticity of requests, and avoid using GET methods for sensitive operations. Spring provides some built-in features to help you with CSRF protection, such as the @EnableWebSecurity annotation, the _csrf hidden input field, and the CsrfFilter class.

3 SQL injection

SQL injection is a type of attack that exploits a vulnerability in the database layer of your web application. It allows attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands that can manipulate or expose your data. To prevent SQL injection, you should always use parameterized queries or prepared statements, and avoid concatenating user input with SQL statements. Spring provides some built-in features to help you with SQL injection protection, such as the JdbcTemplate class, the @Query annotation, and the NamedParameterJdbcTemplate class.

4 Broken authentication

Broken authentication is a type of vulnerability that allows attackers to bypass or compromise the authentication mechanism of your web application. This can lead to unauthorized access, impersonation, or session hijacking. To prevent broken authentication, you should always use strong passwords and encryption, implement multi-factor authentication, enforce session timeouts and expiration, and protect against brute force and dictionary attacks. Spring provides some built-in features to help you with authentication, such as the @EnableWebSecurity annotation, the AuthenticationManager interface, and the PasswordEncoder interface.

5 Insecure deserialization

Insecure deserialization is a type of vulnerability that occurs when your web application accepts and processes untrusted data that can be manipulated to execute malicious code or commands. This can result in remote code execution, privilege escalation, or denial of service. To prevent insecure deserialization, you should always validate and sanitize the data before deserializing it, use secure libraries and formats, and avoid exposing sensitive information in serialized objects. Spring provides some built-in features to help you with deserialization, such as the @JsonCreator and @JsonSetter annotations, the ObjectMapper class, and the DefaultTyping enum.

6 Insufficient logging and monitoring

Insufficient logging and monitoring is a type of vulnerability that prevents your web application from detecting and responding to security incidents in a timely and effective manner. This can increase the impact and damage of an attack, and hinder the investigation and recovery process. To improve logging and monitoring, you should always log relevant and meaningful information, use secure and centralized logging systems, implement alerting and reporting mechanisms, and perform regular audits and reviews. Spring provides some built-in features to help you with logging and monitoring, such as the @Slf4j annotation, the spring-boot-starter-logging dependency, and the Actuator module.