GHSA-2c9m-w27f-53rm is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.3) CWE-523 vulnerability in org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina. A fix is available for org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache Tomcat vulnerable to Unprotected Transport of Credentials
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-2c9m-w27f-53rm.
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
GHSA-2c9m-w27f-53rm 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
org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina☕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 the RemoteIpFilter with requests received from a reverse proxy via HTTP that include the X-Forwarded-Proto header set to https, session cookies created by Apache Tomcat 11.0.0-M1 to 11.0.0.-M2, 10.1.0-M1 to 10.1.5, 9.0.0-M1 to 9.0.71 and 8.5.0 to 8.5.85 did not include the secure attribute. This could result in the user agent transmitting the session cookie over an insecure channel.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina | ≥ 11.0.0-M1&&< 11.0.0-M3 | 11.0.0-M3org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:11.0.0-M3 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina | ≥ 10.1.0-M1&&< 10.1.6 | 10.1.6org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:10.1.6 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina | ≥ 9.0.0-M1&&< 9.0.72 | 9.0.72org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:9.0.72 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina | ≥ 8.5.0&&< 8.5.86 | 8.5.86org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina:8.5.86 |
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 11.0.0-M3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-2c9m-w27f-53rm 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 GHSA-2c9m-w27f-53rm can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-2c9m-w27f-53rm. 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.
CVE-2023-28708 only potentially impacts a Tomcat configuration using a RemoteIpFilter behind a proxy or loadbalancer that sets an X-Forwarded-Proto request header with a value of https. If you do not use RemoteIpFilter in such a configuration, then the vulnerability would not have any impact on you Red Hat Satellite…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| JWS 5.7.4 release | jws5-tomcat | RHSA-2023:4910 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | tomcat-1:9.0.62-27.el8_9 | RHSA-2023:7065 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | tomcat-1:9.0.62-37.el9_3 | RHSA-2023:6570 |
| Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.7 on RHEL 7 | jws5-tomcat-0:9.0.62-15.redhat_00013.1.el7jws | RHSA-2023:4909 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-2c9m-w27f-53rm in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-2c9m-w27f-53rm across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.