Apache Tomcat vulnerable to SecurityManager bypass

Description

A malicious web application running on Apache Tomcat 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.M9, 8.5.0 to 8.5.4, 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.36, 7.0.0 to 7.0.70 and 6.0.0 to 6.0.45 was able to bypass a configured SecurityManager via manipulation of the configuration parameters for the JSP Servlet.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2022-05-13 01:02:16 UTC
Updated
2024-03-02 05:06:39 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2023-12-08 21:59:22 UTC
NVD published
2017-08-10

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.84% 74.62%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
7.5 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

Identifiers

Credits

  • sunSUNQ (analyst)

Affected packages (5)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
maven org.apache.tomcat:tomcat >= 9.0.0.M1, <= 9.0.0.M9 9.0.0.M10
maven org.apache.tomcat:tomcat >= 8.5.0, <= 8.5.4 8.5.5
maven org.apache.tomcat:tomcat >= 8.0.0.RC1, <= 8.0.36 8.0.37
maven org.apache.tomcat:tomcat >= 7.0.0, <= 7.0.70 7.0.71
maven org.apache.tomcat:tomcat >= 6.0.0, <= 6.0.45 6.0.46

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence