Apache Tomcat Improper Privilege Management Vulnerability

CheckOps priority index

9.3/10 Patch within 24 h

Severity9.8

Probability9.9

Exploitation4/5

Severity = CVSS. Probability = EPSS (FIRST). Exploitation = public signals: KEV, EUVD, ransomware, EPSS above 10 %, no account required.

EPSS · today 99.3% higher than 99.9% of CVEs

CVSS 3.1 9.8 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:

Exploited for 1,706 days 03 Mar 2022

CISA due date 17 Mar 2022 for US federal agencies

Exploitation probability EPSS · FIRST

EPSS probability (%)Percentile among all CVEs

Exploitation signals 4 / 5

KEV catalog (CISA)03 Mar 2022
Exploited in EUVD (ENISA)03 Mar 2022
Used by ransomwareno
EPSS above 10 %99.3%
No account, over the networkyes

What to do

Fix

Apply the vendor’s fix as soon as it is available.

CISA guidance: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Meanwhile

Take the service off the internet or restrict access to it, watch the logs and look for signs of compromise.

Manufacturers (CRA)

Exploited vulnerability in your product: early warning to ENISA within 24 h, then notification within 72 h (Article 14 of the Cyber Resilience Act). The CRA explained

Description ENISA EUVD

When using the Apache JServ Protocol (AJP), care must be taken when trusting incoming connections to Apache Tomcat. Tomcat treats AJP connections as having higher trust than, for example, a similar HTTP connection. If such connections are available to an attacker, they can be exploited in ways that may be surprising. In Apache Tomcat 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.30, 8.5.0 to 8.5.50 and 7.0.0 to 7.0.99, Tomcat shipped with an AJP Connector enabled by default that listened on all configured IP addresses. It was expected (and recommended in the security guide) that this Connector would be disabled if not required. This vulnerability report identified a mechanism that allowed: - returning arbitrary files from anywhere in the web application - processing any file in the web application as a JSP Further, if the web application allowed file upload and stored those files within the web application (or the attacker was able to control the content of the web application by some other means) then this, along with the ability to process a file as a JSP, made remote code execution possible. It is important to note that mitigation is only required if an AJP port is accessible to untrusted users. Users wishing to take a defence-in-depth approach and block the vector that permits returning arbitrary files and execution as JSP may upgrade to Apache Tomcat 9.0.31, 8.5.51 or 7.0.100 or later. A number of changes were made to the default AJP Connector configuration in 9.0.31 to harden the default configuration. It is likely that users upgrading to 9.0.31, 8.5.51 or 7.0.100 or later will need to make small changes to their configurations.

Affected products

Apache TomcatTomcat

Affected versions

7.0.0 to 7.0.99
Apache Tomcat 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.30
8.5.0 to 8.5.50

Open source packages OSV

Affected libraries according to OSV, with fixed versions.

Timeline

24 Feb 2020
Published
03 Mar 2022
Exploitation reported (ENISA)
03 Mar 2022
Added to the KEV catalog
17 Mar 2022
CISA remediation due date
26 Sept 2026
EPSS peak: 99.3%

Other exploited vulnerabilities from the same vendor

CVE-2016-3081Apache Struts Command Injection Vulnerability
8.5 · Rising fast
CVE-2026-34486Apache Tomcat Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data Vulnerability
8.4 · Actively exploited
CVE-2026-34197Apache ActiveMQ Improper Input Validation Vulnerability
8.3 · Background exploitation
CVE-2024-38475Apache HTTP Server Improper Escaping of Output Vulnerability
9.0 · Background exploitation
CVE-2025-24813Apache Tomcat Path Equivalence Vulnerability
9.4 · Background exploitation
CVE-2024-45195Apache OFBiz Forced Browsing Vulnerability
9.3 · Background exploitation