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GHSA-w97x-xfxf-f9xj CVE-2003-0045

Jakarta Tomcat Denial of Service vulnerability

Medium Maven
Severity
Medium
The publisher's own rating, not a CVSS score
Exploit chance (EPSS)
2.49%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 84.65% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Fix
3.3.1a
Upgrade org.apache.tomcat:tomcat to this version or later

Description

Jakarta Tomcat before 3.3.1a on certain Windows systems may allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (thread hang and resource consumption) via a request for a JSP page containing an MS-DOS device name, such as aux.jsp.

Affected versions

Maven

PackageVulnerableFixed in
org.apache.tomcat:tomcat
< 3.3.1a
3.3.1a

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 Maven → 3.3.1a

maven
<dependency><groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId><artifactId>tomcat</artifactId><version>3.3.1a</version></dependency>
gradle
implementation("org.apache.tomcat:tomcat:3.3.1a")

Weakness

CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

How to prevent it
  • Architecture and Design: Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place. The login application should be protected against DoS attacks as much as possible. Limiting the database access, perhaps by caching result sets, can help minimize the resources expended. To further limit the potential for a DoS attack, consider tracking the rate of requests received from users and blocking requests that exceed a defined rate threshold.
  • Architecture and Design: Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed. The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question. The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute -- and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.
  • Architecture and Design: Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
  • Implementation: Ensure that all failures in resource allocation place the system into a safe posture.

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Last updated by the source
  3. Latest EPSS score
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
GHSA-69r9-qgr7-g2wj
Apache Tomcat Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data vulnerability
High Known exploited Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat
GHSA-h3x4-894j-xpx5
Apache Tomcat's FORM authentication process has an Incorrect Authorization vulnerability
Critical Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat
GHSA-9xv2-5v5q-p794
Apache Tomcat's DIGEST authenticator has an Authentication Bypass by Capture-replay vulnerability
Critical Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat
GHSA-gcx9-497g-6cp6
Apache Tomcat has an Improper Access Control, Incorrect Authorization vulnerability
Critical Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat
GHSA-5m62-pw8w-7w9f
Apache Tomcat - Security constraints not correctly applied
Critical Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat
GHSA-9m89-8frq-c98c
Apache Tomcat - AJP secret compared in non-constant time
Low Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat
GHSA-5mp6-jrq3-r938
Apache Tomcat: LockOutRealm treats user names as case-sensitive
High Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat
GHSA-h6fc-48rj-7qqh
Apache Tomcat - Digest authenticator will authenticate any unknown user
Critical Also affects org.apache.tomcat:tomcat
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