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CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED
HIGH severity

CVE-2017-12617 — tomcat-catalina

HIGHFix: apache/tomcat@a9dd960

CVE-2017-12617 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) Unrestricted File Upload vulnerability in org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-25) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available for org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type Apache Tomcat

Also known asGHSA-xjgh-84hx-56c5
Published
Updated
Affected
8 pkgs
Patched
8 / 8
Exploits
14 known
Exploitation data as of Oct 22, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

  • Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-03-25. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-04-15.
  • 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-2017-12617.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
100.0%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Very High Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
92.6%95.1%97.5%100.0%94.3%100.0%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2017-12617 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

8 pkgs affected
☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina☕org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core☕org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core☕org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core☕org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core

Real-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 running Apache Tomcat versions 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0, 8.5.0 to 8.5.22, 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.46 and 7.0.0 to 7.0.81 with HTTP PUTs enabled (e.g. via setting the readonly initialisation parameter of the Default servlet to false) it was possible to upload a JSP file to the server via a specially crafted request. This JSP could then be requested and any code it contained would be executed by the server.

Affected Packages

8 total 8 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
☕Mavenorg.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina≥ 9.0.0.M1&&< 9.0.19.0.1org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:9.0.1
☕Mavenorg.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina≥ 8.5.0&&< 8.5.238.5.23org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:8.5.23
☕Mavenorg.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina≥ 8.0.0-RC1&&< 8.0.478.0.47org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:8.0.47
☕Mavenorg.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.0.827.0.82org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:7.0.82
☕Mavenorg.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core≥ 9.0.0.M1&&< 9.0.19.0.1org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core:9.0.1
☕Mavenorg.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core≥ 8.5.0&&< 8.5.238.5.23org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core:8.5.23

Affected Products

58 products · 157 configurations
Application
tomcatapache
≥ 9.0.0 && < 9.0.1
range
OS
ubuntu linuxcanonical
4 versions
12.0416.0417.1018.04
OS
debian linuxdebian
1 version
7.0
Application
active iq unified managernetapp
≥ 9.5
range
OS
elementnetapp
all
Application
oncommand balancenetapp
all
Exploits & PoCs
14

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-42966webappsjsp✓ Verified

Apache Tomcat < 9.0.1 (Beta) / < 8.5.23 / < 8.0.47 / < 7.0.8 - JSP Upload Bypass / Remote Code Execution (2)

by intx0x80 · Oct 9, 2017

Exploit-DB Source
EDB-43008remotejava✓ Verified

Tomcat - Remote Code Execution via JSP Upload Bypass (Metasploit)

by Metasploit · Oct 17, 2017

Exploit-DB Source

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    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.

  2. Fix

    Update org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina to 9.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2017-12617 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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-2017-12617

A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:

nuclei -id cve-2017-12617 -u https://target
Template
Apache Tomcat - Remote Code Execution
Severity
high
Impact
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on the affected server.
Remediation
Upgrade to Apache Tomcat version 7.0.80 or later to mitigate this vulnerability.

Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (pussycat0x), 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 HatImportant

This flaw affects Tomcat on Red Hat Enterprise Linux only when a specific context is configured with readonly=false. The default configuration has a readonly context, so it is not affected.

Workaround published by Red Hat
Ensure that readonly is set to true (the default) for the DefaultServlet, WebDAV servlet or application context. Block HTTP methods that permit resource modification for untrusted users.
Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2017-12617 (CC BY 4.0)
ProductFixed inAdvisory
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6tomcat6-0:6.0.24-111.el6_9RHSA-2017:3080
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7tomcat-0:7.0.76-3.el7_4RHSA-2017:3081
Red Hat Fuse Intergration Services 2.0 based on Fuse 6.3 R8see advisoryRHSA-2018:2939
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4jbosswebRHSA-2018:0269
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4 for RHEL 5hornetq-0:2.3.25-25.SP23_redhat_1.1.ep6.el5RHSA-2018:0271
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4 for RHEL 6hornetq-0:2.3.25-25.SP23_redhat_1.1.ep6.el6RHSA-2018:0270
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4 for RHEL 6jboss-ec2-eap-0:7.5.19-2.Final_redhat_2.ep6.el6RHSA-2018:0275
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4 for RHEL 7hornetq-0:2.3.25-25.SP23_redhat_1.1.ep6.el7RHSA-2018:0268
UbuntuHIGH
USN-3665-1UbuntuUSN-7282-1Ubuntu

Frequently Asked Questions

When running Apache Tomcat versions 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0, 8.5.0 to 8.5.22, 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.46 and 7.0.0 to 7.0.81 with HTTP PUTs enabled (e.g. via setting the readonly initialisation parameter of the Default servlet to false) it was possible to upload a JSP file to the server via a specially crafted request. This JSP could then be requested and any code it contained would be executed by the server.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2017-12617: tomcat-catalina (High 8.1, KEV)