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Fencer Intel
high 7.1

CVE-2016-6816 in the critical feed json

Improper Input Validation in Apache Tomcat

published 2017-03-20 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-jc7p-5r39-9477 , EUVD-2022-4326

cvss
7.1
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
39.6%
EPSS 39.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 98%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

The code in Apache Tomcat 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.M11, 8.5.0 to 8.5.6, 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.38, 7.0.0 to 7.0.72, and 6.0.0 to 6.0.47 that parsed the HTTP request line permitted invalid characters. This could be exploited, in conjunction with a proxy that also permitted the invalid characters but with a different interpretation, to inject data into the HTTP response. By manipulating the HTTP response the attacker could poison a web-cache, perform an XSS attack and/or obtain sensitive information from requests other then their own.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote 6.0.48, 7.0.73, 8.0.39, 8.5.8, 9.0.0.M12
  • tomcat6 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 6.0.45+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1
  • tomcat7 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 7.0.52-1ubuntu0.8
  • tomcat7 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 7.0.68-1ubuntu0.3
  • tomcat8 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 8.0.32-1ubuntu1.3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-6816

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • tomcat7 jboss enterprise web server 3.1 7.0.70-16.ep7.el7
  • tomcat8 jboss enterprise web server 3.1 8.0.36-17.ep7.el7
  • mod_cluster jboss enterprise web server 3.1 1.3.5-2.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el7
  • tomcat7-lib jboss enterprise web server 3.1 7.0.70-16.ep7.el7
  • tomcat8-lib jboss enterprise web server 3.1 8.0.36-17.ep7.el7
  • tomcat-vault jboss enterprise web server 3.1 1.0.8-9.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el7
  • tomcat7-jsvc jboss enterprise web server 3.1 7.0.70-16.ep7.el7
  • tomcat8-jsvc jboss enterprise web server 3.1 8.0.36-17.ep7.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:0456RHSA-2017:0455RHSA-2017:0935RHSA-2017:0527RHSA-2017:0250RHSA-2017:0245

  • tomcat6 SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA +2 more 6.0.53-0.56.1
  • tomcat SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1 8.0.32-10.13.2
  • tomcat SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 8.0.36-17.1
  • tomcat SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12-LTSS 7.0.78-7.13.4

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:1660-1SUSE-SU-2017:1632-1SUSE-SU-2016:3079-1SUSE-SU-2016:3081-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2016-6816 updated cvss 6.5

tomcat: HTTP Request smuggling vulnerability due to permitting invalid character in HTTP requests

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 tomcat5 Red Hat JBoss Data Grid 6 jbossweb jbossweb Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6 jbossweb jbossweb Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5 jbossweb jbossweb
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 2 tomcat6, tomcat6-lib, tomcat6-log4j, tomcat6-javadoc, tomcat6-webapps, tomcat7 tomcat7, +6 more
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 3 tomcat7 tomcat7
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat JBoss Operations Network 3 Core Server Core Server Red Hat JBoss Portal 6 jbossweb jbossweb
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 tomcat8 tomcat8
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat JBoss Fuse 6 jbossweb jbossweb
    under investigation
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) tomcat 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-servlet-3.0-api 7.0.69-11.el7_3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) tomcat 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-lib 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-jsvc 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-javadoc 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-webapps 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-el-2.2-api 7.0.69-11.el7_3, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) tomcat 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-servlet-3.0-api 7.0.69-11.el7_3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) tomcat 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-lib 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-jsvc 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-javadoc 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-webapps 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-el-2.2-api 7.0.69-11.el7_3, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0935
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) tomcat6 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-lib 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-javadoc 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-webapps 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-el-2.1-api 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-docs-webapp 6.0.24-105.el6_8, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) tomcat6 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-lib 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-javadoc 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-webapps 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-el-2.1-api 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-docs-webapp 6.0.24-105.el6_8, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) tomcat6 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-lib 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-el-2.1-api 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-jsp-2.1-api 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-servlet-2.5-api 6.0.24-105.el6_8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0527
show 15 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) tomcat 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-lib 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-webapps 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-el-2.2-api 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-jsp-2.2-api 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-admin-webapps 7.0.69-11.el7_3, +1 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0935
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) tomcat6 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-javadoc 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-webapps 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-docs-webapp 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-admin-webapps 6.0.24-105.el6_8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0527
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) tomcat 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-lib 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-jsvc 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-javadoc 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-webapps 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-el-2.2-api 7.0.69-11.el7_3, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0935
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) tomcat6 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-lib 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-el-2.1-api 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-jsp-2.1-api 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-servlet-2.5-api 6.0.24-105.el6_8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0527
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) tomcat 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-lib 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-webapps 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-el-2.2-api 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-jsp-2.2-api 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-admin-webapps 7.0.69-11.el7_3, +1 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0935
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) tomcat6 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-javadoc 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-webapps 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-docs-webapp 6.0.24-105.el6_8, tomcat6-admin-webapps 6.0.24-105.el6_8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0527
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) tomcat-jsvc 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-javadoc 7.0.69-11.el7_3, tomcat-docs-webapp 7.0.69-11.el7_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0935
  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0247
  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4 for RHEL 5 Server hornetq 2.3.25-18.SP16_redhat_1.1.ep6.el5, apache-cxf 2.7.18-5.SP4_redhat_1.1.ep6.el5, jbossweb 7.5.20-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el5, resteasy 2.3.16-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el5, jboss-hal 2.5.15-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el5, infinispan 5.2.20-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el5, +69 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0246
  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4 for RHEL 6 Server hornetq 2.3.25-18.SP16_redhat_1.1.ep6.el6, apache-cxf 2.7.18-5.SP4_redhat_1.1.ep6.el6, jbossweb 7.5.20-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el6, resteasy 2.3.16-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el6, jboss-hal 2.5.15-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el6, infinispan 5.2.20-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el6, +71 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0244
  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4 for RHEL 7 Server hornetq 2.3.25-18.SP16_redhat_1.1.ep6.el7, apache-cxf 2.7.18-5.SP4_redhat_1.1.ep6.el7, jbossweb 7.5.20-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el7, resteasy 2.3.16-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el7, jboss-hal 2.5.15-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el7, infinispan 5.2.20-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el7, +69 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0245
  • Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0457
  • Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3.1 for RHEL 6 tomcat7 7.0.70-16.ep7.el6, tomcat8 8.0.36-17.ep7.el6, tomcat7-lib 7.0.70-16.ep7.el6, tomcat8-lib 8.0.36-17.ep7.el6, tomcat7-jsvc 7.0.70-16.ep7.el6, tomcat8-jsvc 8.0.36-17.ep7.el6, +31 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0455
  • Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3.1 for RHEL 7 tomcat7 7.0.70-16.ep7.el7, tomcat8 8.0.36-17.ep7.el7, tomcat7-lib 7.0.70-16.ep7.el7, tomcat8-lib 8.0.36-17.ep7.el7, tomcat7-jsvc 7.0.70-16.ep7.el7, tomcat8-jsvc 8.0.36-17.ep7.el7, +31 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0456
  • Red Hat Software Collections rh-java-common-tomcat-lib, rh-java-common-tomcat-javadoc, rh-java-common-tomcat-el-2.2-api, rh-java-common-tomcat-jsp-2.2-api, rh-java-common-tomcat-servlet-3.0-api
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. First public exploit (EDB-41783)

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

39.63% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 98% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-41783 Apache Tomcat 6/7/8/9 - Information Disclosure remote, 2017-04-04

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.1 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
GitHub 3.0 7.1 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote
>=9.0.0.M1, <9.0.0.M12
>=8.5.0, <8.5.8
>=8.0.0RC1, <8.0.39
>=7.0.0, <7.0.73
>=6.0.0, <6.0.48
9.0.0.M12
8.5.8
8.0.39
7.0.73
6.0.48

Affected products

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache Tomcat

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.