CVE-2005-2090 — tomcat
CVE-2005-2090 is a security vulnerability in org.apache.tomcat:tomcat. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Tomcat Vulnerable to Web Cache Poisoning
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.tomcat:tomcat☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcatReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Jakarta Tomcat 5.0.19 (Coyote/1.1) and Tomcat 4.1.24 (Coyote/1.0) allows remote attackers to poison the web cache, bypass web application firewall protection, and conduct XSS attacks via an HTTP request with both a "Transfer-Encoding: chunked" header and a Content-Length header, which causes Tomcat to incorrectly handle and forward the body of the request in a way that causes the receiving server to process it as a separate HTTP request, aka "HTTP Request Smuggling."
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat | ≥ 5.0.0 | No fix |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat | ≥ 4.0.0 | No fix |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.tomcat:tomcat, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of org.apache.tomcat:tomcat has shipped for CVE-2005-2090 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2005-2090 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2005-2090. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Certificate System 7.3 | ant-0:1.6.5-1jpp_1rh | RHSA-2010:0602 |
| Red Hat Developer Suite V.3 | jakarta-commons-modeler-0:2.0-3jpp_3rh | RHSA-2007:0328 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | jakarta-commons-modeler-0:1.1-8jpp.1.0.2.el5 | RHSA-2007:0327 |
| Red Hat Network Satellite Server v 4.0 | jakarta-commons-pool-0:1.2-2jpp_2rh | RHSA-2007:1069 |
| Red Hat Network Satellite Server v 4.2 | jabberd-0:2.0s10-3.38.rhn | RHSA-2008:0524 |
| Red Hat Network Satellite Server v 5.0 | jabberd-0:2.0s10-3.38.rhn | RHSA-2008:0261 |
| Red Hat Web Application Stack for RHEL 4 | jbossas-0:4.0.5-2.CP04.el4s1.2 | RHSA-2007:0360 |
| RHAPS Version 1 for RHEL 3 | tomcat5-0:5.0.30-0jpp_5rh | RHSA-2007:0340 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2005-2090 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2005-2090 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.