CVE-2014-4172 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-74 vulnerability in org.jasig.cas:cas-client. A fix is available for org.jasig.cas:cas-client — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Jasig Java CAS Client, .NET CAS Client, and phpCAS contain URL parameter injection vulnerability
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.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2014-4172 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.jasig.cas:cas-client.NETDotNetCasClient🐘jasig/phpcasReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven, NuGet, Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A URL parameter injection vulnerability was found in the back-channel ticket validation step of the CAS protocol in Jasig Java CAS Client before 3.3.2, .NET CAS Client before 1.0.2, and phpCAS before 1.3.3 that allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the (1) service parameter to validation/AbstractUrlBasedTicketValidator.java or (2) pgtUrl parameter to validation/Cas20ServiceTicketValidator.java.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.jasig.cas:cas-client | all versions | 3.3.2org.jasig.cas:cas-client:3.3.2 |
| .NETNuGet | DotNetCasClient | all versions | 1.0.2dotnet add package DotNetCasClient --version 1.0.2 |
| 🐘Packagist | jasig/phpcas | all versions | 1.3.3composer require jasig/phpcas:^1.3.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.jasig.cas:cas-client, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.jasig.cas:cas-client to 3.3.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2014-4172 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
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-2014-4172 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2014-4172. 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 JBoss Portal 6.2 | cas-client | RHSA-2015:1009 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2014-4172 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2014-4172 across Maven, NuGet, Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.