# CVE-2024-38816: CVE-2024-38816: Path traversal vulnerability in functional web frameworks

- Exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-09-13
- CVSS: 7.5 HIGH (v3.1)
- EPSS: 21.3% (98th percentile)

Applications serving static resources through the functional web frameworks WebMvc.fn or WebFlux.fn are vulnerable to path traversal attacks. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests and obtain any file on the file system that is also accessible to the process in which the Spring application is running.

Specifically, an application is vulnerable when both of the following are true:

  *  the web application uses RouterFunctions to serve static resources
  *  resource handling is explicitly configured with a FileSystemResource location


However, malicious requests are blocked and rejected when any of the following is true:

  *  the  Spring Security HTTP Firewall https://docs.spring.io/spring-security/reference/servlet/exploits/firewall.html  is in use
  *  the application runs on Tomcat or Jetty

## Edge WAF coverage (claimed by vendors, not measured)

| Vendor | Status | First rule | Days after publication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Before feed history | — | — |
| AWS | No public claim | — | — |
| Microsoft Azure | No public claim | — | — |
| Google Cloud | No public claim | — | — |
| Fastly | Before feed history | — | — |
| F5 | Rule published | 2025-01-21 | 130 |
| Akamai | No public source | — | — |
| OWASP CRS | No public claim | — | — |

### F5

- 2025-01-21 · new · rule 200007080
  > Added: signature 200007080 "WebMvc.fn/WebFlux.fn Path Traversal" (Path Traversal, risk High), systems: Java Servlets/JSP, Spring Boot. References: CVE-2024-38816.
  Source: https://docs.cloud.f5.com/docs-v2/platform/changelogs/security-details-changelog
- 2025-03-11 · new · rule 200007080
  > Added: signature 200007080 "WebMvc.fn/WebFlux.fn Path Traversal" (Path Traversal, risk High), systems: Java Servlets/JSP, Spring Boot. References: CVE-2024-38816.
  Source: https://docs.cloud.f5.com/docs-v2/platform/changelogs/security-details-changelog

## Our test (measured)

- OWASP Core Rule Set 4.25.0, paranoia level 1, anomaly threshold 5, default CRS settings: blocked (1 of 1 requests blocked), template CVE-2024-38816, 2026-11-02
- OWASP Core Rule Set 4.25.0, paranoia level 2, anomaly threshold 5, default CRS settings: blocked (1 of 1 requests blocked), template CVE-2024-38816, 2026-11-02

"No public claim" means no vendor statement names this CVE; "Before feed history" means the CVE is older than the vendor feed. In both cases generic rules may still block it.

HTML: https://cve.vigilbase.com/cve/CVE-2024-38816 · JSON: https://cve.vigilbase.com/api/v1/cves/CVE-2024-38816