Vulnerability Note VU#343355

Apache Tomcat UTF8 Directory Traversal Vulnerability

Overview

Apache Tomcat contains a vulnerability that may allow directory traversal.

I. Description

Apache Tomcat is an implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Page (JSP) technologies. Apache Tomcat contains a vulnerability in the way malformed requests are handled. According to the Apache Tomcat 6.x Vulnerabilities page:

If a context is configured with allowLinking="true" and the connector is configured with URIEncoding="UTF-8" then a malformed request may be used to access arbitrary files on the server.

This vulnerability affects versions 4.1.0-4.1.37, 5.5.0-5.5.26, and 6.0.0-6.0.16.

Note that we are aware of publicly-available exploit code for this vulnerability.

II. Impact

A remote attacker could gain access to arbitrary files on the server.

III. Solution

Apply an update

This vulnerability is addressed in Apache Tomcat 4.1.38, 5.5.27, and 6.0.18. Please check the Apache Tomcat Security page for availability of fixes for this and other versions of Tomcat.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Updated
Apache Tomcat	Vulnerable	19-Aug-2008

References

http://tomcat.apache.org/security.html

Credit

This issue was reported by William A. Rowe of Apache.

This document was written by Chris Taschner.

Other Information

Date Public	08/11/2008
Date First Published	08/19/2008 04:28:12 PM
Date Last Updated	08/19/2008
CERT Advisory
CVE Name	CVE-2008-2938
Metric	7.14
Document Revision	4

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