# CVE-2026-22738: SpEL Injection via Unescaped Filter Key in SimpleVectorStore Leads to Remote Code Execution

- Exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-03-27
- CVSS: 9.8 CRITICAL (v3.1)
- EPSS: 1.1% (66th percentile)

In Spring AI, a SpEL injection vulnerability exists in SimpleVectorStore when a user-supplied value is used as a filter expression key. A malicious actor could exploit this to execute arbitrary code. Only applications that use SimpleVectorStore and pass user-supplied input as a filter expression key are affected.
This issue affects Spring AI: from 1.0.0 before 1.0.5, from 1.1.0 before 1.1.4.

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

| Vendor | Status | First rule | Days after publication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | No public claim | — | — |
| AWS | No public claim | — | — |
| Microsoft Azure | No public claim | — | — |
| Google Cloud | No public claim | — | — |
| Fastly | Before feed history | — | — |
| F5 | Rule published | 2026-07-07 | 102 |
| Akamai | No public source | — | — |
| OWASP CRS | No public claim | — | — |

### F5

- 2026-07-07 · new · rule 200204069
  > Added: signature 200204069 "Spring AI SimpleVectorStore Remote Code Execution" (Server Side Code Injection, risk High), systems: Spring Boot. References: CVE-2026-22738.
  Source: https://docs.cloud.f5.com/docs-v2/platform/changelogs/security-details-changelog

"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-2026-22738 · JSON: https://cve.vigilbase.com/api/v1/cves/CVE-2026-22738