How to upgrade spring framework version in spring boot

I am using spring-boot 2.3.3.RELEASE with the according spring-boot-starter-parent in maven.

<parent>
   <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
   <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
   <version>2.3.3.RELEASE</version>
   <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
 </parent>

Due to the spring4shell CVE I wanted to upgrade the spring-framework to 5.2.20.RELEASE instead of the already included 5.2.8.RELEASE. I tried overriding the spring-framework.version property from spring-boot-dependencies.

    <spring-framework.version>5.2.20.RELEASE</spring-framework.version>

But it did not work. I also looked up the spring-boot-starter-web-2.3.3.RELEASE.pom and it has the spring-web dependency hardcoded to 5.2.8.RELEASE.

Are there any other ways of upgrading the spring-framework version in spring-boot besides adding all the new versions as dependencies to the dependencyManagement section? Thx

Full POM:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 
  http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

<parent>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
  <version>2.3.3.RELEASE</version>
  <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

<groupId>group</groupId>
<artifactId>app</artifactId>
<version>3.1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>

<properties>
  <flyway.version>4.1.2</flyway.version>
  <groovy.version>2.4.20</groovy.version>
  <spring-framework.version>5.2.20.RELEASE</spring-framework.version>
  <spring-cloud.version>Hoxton.SR7</spring-cloud.version>
  <h2.version>1.4.196</h2.version>
</properties>

<dependencyManagement>
<dependencies>

  <dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
    <version>${spring-cloud.version}</version>
    <type>pom</type>
    <scope>import</scope>
  </dependency>

</dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<dependencies>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-rest</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webflux</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
  <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
  <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-configuration-processor</artifactId>
  <optional>true</optional>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.mockito</groupId>
  <artifactId>mockito-core</artifactId>
</dependency>


<dependency>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.groovy</groupId>
  <artifactId>groovy-all</artifactId>
  <version>${groovy.version}</version>
</dependency>

<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat/jackson-dataformat-xml -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat</groupId>
  <artifactId>jackson-dataformat-xml</artifactId>
</dependency>

</dependencies>
<build>
<finalName>app</finalName>
<resources>
  <resource>
    <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
    <filtering>true</filtering>
    <includes>
      <include>**/version.json</include>
      <include>**/**.properties</include>
    </includes>
  </resource>

  <resource>
    <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
    <filtering>false</filtering>
    <includes>
      <include>**/*.*</include>
    </includes>
    <excludes>
      <exclude>**/version.json</exclude>
      <exclude>**/**.properties</exclude>
    </excludes>
  </resource>
</resources>
</build>
</project>

EDIT: This is a part of mvn dependency:tree:

+- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-webflux:jar:2.3.3.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-json:jar:2.3.3.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype:jackson-datatype-jdk8:jar:2.11.2:compile
[INFO] |  |  - com.fasterxml.jackson.module:jackson-module-parameter-names:jar:2.11.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-reactor-netty:jar:2.3.3.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework:spring-web:jar:5.2.8.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework:spring-webflux:jar:5.2.8.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  - org.synchronoss.cloud:nio-multipart-parser:jar:1.1.0:compile
[INFO] |     - org.synchronoss.cloud:nio-stream-storage:jar:1.1.3:compile

If you have a look at the spring-boot-starter-webflux-2.3.3.RELEASE.pom which includes the problematic spring-web 5.2.8.RELEASE you will find that the spring version is hardcoded to 5.2.8.RELEASE. So setting the spring.framework property in maven will have no effect.

    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
      <version>5.2.8.RELEASE</version>
      <scope>compile</scope>
    </dependency>

Output of mvn help:effective-pom:

 <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>  <!-- org.springframework:spring-framework-bom:5.2.8.RELEASE, line 126 -->
        <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>  <!-- org.springframework:spring-framework-bom:5.2.8.RELEASE, line 127 -->
        <version>5.2.8.RELEASE</version>  <!-- org.springframework:spring-framework-bom:5.2.8.RELEASE, line 128 -->
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>  <!-- org.springframework:spring-framework-bom:5.2.8.RELEASE, line 131 -->
        <artifactId>spring-webflux</artifactId>  <!-- org.springframework:spring-framework-bom:5.2.8.RELEASE, line 132 -->
        <version>5.2.8.RELEASE</version>  <!-- org.springframework:spring-framework-bom:5.2.8.RELEASE, line 133 -->
      </dependency>

Edit after Solution by @Inthai2002: I have additonally an internal lib pom imported in my pom.xml

<dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>internal</groupId>
                <artifactId>lib</artifactId>
                <version>4.4.0</version>
                <scope>import</scope>
                <type>pom</type>
            </dependency>

            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
                <version>${spring-cloud.version}</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>

        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>

and this internal lib has the spring-boot-dependencies pom directly imported which leads to the fact that spring-framework.version property is ignored:

          <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-dependencies</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.3.RELEASE</version>
                <scope>import</scope>
                <type>pom</type>
            </dependency>

Answer

I just tried your pom (with and without the spring-framework.version property) on a clean m2 repo. Without the property, spring-framework is 5.2.8, with the property, it is 5.2.20. Can you try on a clean repo?

The spring-framework-bom at version X is hardcoded to all the spring packages for version X (see https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/springframework/spring-framework-bom/5.2.8.RELEASE/spring-framework-bom-5.2.8.RELEASE.pom)

The spring-framework.version property is declared and used to pull the spring-framework-bom in spring-boot-dependencies and inherited by its descendants (see https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/springframework/boot/spring-boot-dependencies/2.3.3.RELEASE/spring-boot-dependencies-2.3.3.RELEASE.pom).

spring-boot-dependencies is parent of spring-boot-starter-parent (see https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/springframework/boot/spring-boot-starter-parent/2.3.3.RELEASE/spring-boot-starter-parent-2.3.3.RELEASE.pom).

Because the property is inherited by descendant, you can override its value at the pom of your application. By overriding it with 5.2.20, you are swapping out spring-framework-bom 5.2.8 for 5.2.20 which effectively pull most of the spring packages for 5.2.20