CVE-2023-28708 | Apache Tomcat: JSESSIONID Cookie missing secure attribute in some configurations

When using the RemoteIpFilter with requests received from a reverse proxy via HTTP that include the X-Forwarded-Proto header set to https, session cookies created by Apache Tomcat 11.0.0-M1 to 11.0.0.-M2, 10.1.0-M1 to 10.1.5, 9.0.0-M1 to 9.0.71 and 8.5.0 to 8.5.85 did not include the secure attribute. This could result in the user agent transmitting the session cookie over an insecure channel. Older, EOL versions may also be affected.

Published: 2023-03-22 Last update: 2025-11-04 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-28708 is rated Low Risk (25.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.10%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-28708

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-11-21 1.07% 0.10% -0.97%
2 2025-11-18 0.15% 1.07% +0.92%
3 2025-11-04 — 0.15% —

Full EPSS history (24 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-28708

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 1.4 [email protected]
4.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 1.4 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-28708

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-28708

GHSA-2c9m-w27f-53rm · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Apache Tomcat vulnerable to Unprotected Transport of Credentials

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-28708

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-28708 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (tomcat10, tomcat9), 9 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 9. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-28708
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-28708
suse high CVE-2023-28708 severity important: SUSE including 358 source package names (5.0.0-beta1.2.122:tomcat-9.0.43-150200.35.1, 5.0.0-beta1.2.122:tomcat-el-3_0-api-9.0.43-150200.35.1, …), 622 product×package rows across 56 product lines (Container containers/apache-tomcat, Container suse/manager/5.0/x86_64/server, … (56 product lines)): Fixed 379, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 12. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-28708/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-28708 medium priority: Ubuntu including 6 source packages (tomcat10, tomcat11, tomcat6, tomcat7, tomcat8, tomcat9), 57 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 22, ignored 18, released 11, not-affected 4, needs-triage 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-28708

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-28708

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache tomcat >= 8.5.0, < 8.5.86 cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache tomcat > 9.0.0, < 9.0.72 cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache tomcat > 10.1.0, < 10.1.6 cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache tomcat 11.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:11.0.0:milestone1:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache tomcat 11.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:11.0.0:milestone2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-28708

cvelogic Threat Intelligence