GHSA-v646-rx6w-r3qq CVE-2016-5388

Improper Access Control in Apache Tomcat

High Maven

Severity: 8.1 / 10; High · CVSS 3.0
Exploit chance (EPSS): 50.90%; Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 98.93% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited: No; Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness: CWE-284 Improper Access Control
Fix: 7.0.72; Upgrade org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina to this version or later

Description

Apache Tomcat 7.x through 7.0.70 and 8.x through 8.5.4, when the CGI Servlet is enabled, follows RFC 3875 section 4.1.18 and therefore does not protect applications from the presence of untrusted client data in the HTTP_PROXY environment variable, which might allow remote attackers to redirect an application's outbound HTTP traffic to an arbitrary proxy server via a crafted Proxy header in an HTTP request, aka an "httpoxy" issue. NOTE: the vendor states "A mitigation is planned for future releases of Tomcat, tracked as CVE-2016-5388"; in other words, this is not a CVE ID for a vulnerability.

Affected versions

Maven

Package	Vulnerable	Fixed in
org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina	`>= 7.0.0, < 7.0.72`	`7.0.72`
org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina	`>= 8.0.0, < 8.5.5`	`8.5.5`

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina Maven → `7.0.72`

maven

<dependency><groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId><artifactId>tomcat-catalina</artifactId><version>7.0.72</version></dependency>

gradle

implementation("org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:7.0.72")

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.0 8.1

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: High
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Weakness

CWE-284: Improper Access Control

The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor.

How to prevent it

Architecture and Design, Operation: Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
Architecture and Design: Compartmentalize the system to have "safe" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area. Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

References

Advisories

nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-5388

Packages

github.com/apache/tomcat

Timeline

May 13, 2022 Published
Mar 11, 2024 Last updated by the source
Oct 31, 2026 Latest EPSS score

Advisory	Severity	Why it's related
GHSA-83qj-6fr2-vhqg Apache Tomcat: Potential RCE and/or information disclosure and/or information corruption with partial PUT	Critical Known exploited	Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina
GHSA-xjgh-84hx-56c5 Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type Apache Tomcat	High Known exploited	Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina
GHSA-cw54-59pw-4g8c Apache Tomcat Improper Access Control vulnerability	Critical Known exploited	Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina
GHSA-h3x4-894j-xpx5 Apache Tomcat's FORM authentication process has an Incorrect Authorization vulnerability	Critical	Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina
GHSA-9xv2-5v5q-p794 Apache Tomcat's DIGEST authenticator has an Authentication Bypass by Capture-replay vulnerability	Critical	Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina
GHSA-gcx9-497g-6cp6 Apache Tomcat has an Improper Access Control, Incorrect Authorization vulnerability	Critical	Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina
GHSA-5m62-pw8w-7w9f Apache Tomcat - Security constraints not correctly applied	Critical	Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina
GHSA-9m89-8frq-c98c Apache Tomcat - AJP secret compared in non-constant time	Low	Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina

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