CVE-2017-12616 — tomcat-catalina
HIGHCVE-2017-12616 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Information Exposure vulnerability in org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 70.1% (99th percentile). A fix is available for org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor in Apache Tomcat
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-2017-12616 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE sits: patch-first territory.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalinaReal-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
When using a VirtualDirContext with Apache Tomcat 7.0.0 to 7.0.80 it was possible to bypass security constraints and/or view the source code of JSPs for resources served by the VirtualDirContext using a specially crafted request.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina | ≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.0.81 | 7.0.81org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:7.0.81 |
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-catalina, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina to 7.0.81 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2017-12616 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-2017-12616 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2017-12616. 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.
VirtualDirContext is not designed to be used in production, but only to ease development with IDEs without needing to fully republish jars in WEB-INF/lib.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3.1 | see advisory | RHSA-2018:0465 |
| Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6 | mod_cluster-0:1.3.8-2.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el6 | RHSA-2018:0466 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2017-12616 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2017-12616 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.