CVE-2017-12196 — undertow-core
MEDIUMCVE-2017-12196 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) Improper Authentication vulnerability in io.undertow:undertow-core. A fix is available for io.undertow:undertow-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Incorrect Authorization in Undertow
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-2017-12196 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 377,238 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
io.undertow:undertow-core☕io.undertow:undertow-coreReal-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
undertow before versions 1.4.18.SP1, 2.0.2.Final, 1.4.24.Final was found vulnerable when using Digest authentication, the server does not ensure that the value of URI in the Authorization header matches the URI in HTTP request line. This allows the attacker to cause a MITM attack and access the desired content on the server.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | io.undertow:undertow-core | ≥ 2.0.0.Alpha1&&< 2.0.2.FInal | 2.0.2.FInalio.undertow:undertow-core:2.0.2.FInal |
| ☕Maven | io.undertow:undertow-core | all versions | 1.4.24.Finalio.undertow:undertow-core:1.4.24.Final |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for io.undertow:undertow-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update io.undertow:undertow-core to 2.0.2.FInal or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2017-12196 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-2017-12196 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2017-12196. 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 Fuse 7.2 | see advisory | RHSA-2018:3768 |
| Red Hat Fuse Intergration Services 2.0 based on Fuse 6.3 R7 | undertow | RHSA-2018:2405 |
| Red Hat JBoss EAP 7 | undertow | RHSA-2018:0478 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1 for RHEL 6 | eap7-activemq-artemis-0:1.5.5.009-1.redhat_1.1.ep7.el6 | RHSA-2018:0479 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1 for RHEL 6 | eap7-jboss-ec2-eap-0:7.1.1-3.1.GA_redhat_3.ep7.el6 | RHSA-2018:0481 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1 for RHEL 7 | eap7-activemq-artemis-0:1.5.5.009-1.redhat_1.1.ep7.el7 | RHSA-2018:0480 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Continuous Delivery | undertow | RHSA-2020:2561 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Continuous Delivery | see advisory | RHSA-2020:2562 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2017-12196 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2017-12196 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.