CVE-2016-3088 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Unrestricted File Upload vulnerability in org.apache.activemq:activemq-client. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-02-10) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available for org.apache.activemq:activemq-client — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Improper Input Validation in Apache ActiveMQ
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-02-10. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-08-10.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2016-3088.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2016-3088 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.activemq:activemq-clientReal-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
The Fileserver web application in Apache ActiveMQ 5.x before 5.14.0 allows remote attackers to upload and execute arbitrary files via an HTTP PUT followed by an HTTP MOVE request.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.activemq:activemq-client | ≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.14.0 | 5.14.0org.apache.activemq:activemq-client:5.14.0 |
Affected Products
activemqapacheResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Apache ActiveMQ 5.11.1/5.13.2 - Directory Traversal / Command Execution
by David Jorm · Aug 17, 2015
ActiveMQ < 5.14.0 - Web Shell Upload (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Jun 29, 2017
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.activemq:activemq-client, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.activemq:activemq-client to 5.14.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2016-3088 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Treat uploaded files as untrusted until proven otherwise: validate the actual content type rather than the supplied extension, store uploads outside the web root on a volume mounted without execute permission, and rename them to server-generated identifiers so an attacker cannot choose the path a request will later resolve.
How to detect CVE-2016-3088
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2016-3088 -u https://target- Template
- Apache ActiveMQ Fileserver - Arbitrary File Write
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- An attacker can write arbitrary files on the server, potentially leading to remote code execution.
- Remediation
- Upgrade to Apache ActiveMQ version 5.14.0 or later to fix the vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (fq_hsu), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
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.
Red Hat JBoss A-MQ 6.3 , Red Hat JBoss Fuse 6.3, and Red Hat JBoss Fuse Service Works 6.0.0 do not provide the vulnerable component and are not affected by this flaw. Red Hat JBoss A-MQ 6.2.1 and Red Hat JBoss Fuse 6.2.1 disable the vulnerable component and as such are not vulnerable to this flaw. The fileserver…
Users are advised to use other FTP and HTTP based file servers for transferring blob messages. Fileserver web application SHOULD NOT be used in older version of the broker and it should be disabled (it has been disabled by default since 5.12.0). This can be done by removing (commenting out) the following lines from conf\jetty.xml file <bean class="org.eclipse.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext"> <property name="contextPath" value="/fileserver" /> <property name="resourceBase" value="${activemq.home}/webapps/fileserver" /> <property name="logUrlOnStart" value="true" /> <property name="parentLoaderPriority" value="true" /> </bean>Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2016-3088 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2016-3088 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.