Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer in Apache TomcatGHSA-vf77-8h7g-gghp
HIGHGHSA-vf77-8h7g-gghp is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-401 vulnerability in org.apache.tomcat:tomcat. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 64.1% (99th percentile). A fix is available for org.apache.tomcat:tomcat — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-vf77-8h7g-gghp.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-vf77-8h7g-gghp 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 385,987 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.tomcat:tomcat☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyoteReal-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
An h2c direct connection to Apache Tomcat 10.0.0-M1 to 10.0.0-M6, 9.0.0.M5 to 9.0.36 and 8.5.1 to 8.5.56 did not release the HTTP/1.1 processor after the upgrade to HTTP/2. If a sufficient number of such requests were made, an OutOfMemoryException could occur leading to a denial of service.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat | ≥ 10.0.0-M1&&< 10.0.0-M6 | 10.0.0-M6org.apache.tomcat:tomcat:10.0.0-M6 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat | ≥ 9.0.0.M5&&< 9.0.36 | 9.0.36org.apache.tomcat:tomcat:9.0.36 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat | ≥ 8.5.1&&< 8.5.56 | 8.5.56org.apache.tomcat:tomcat:8.5.56 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote | ≥ 10.0.0-M1&&< 10.0.0-M6 | 10.0.0-M6org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote:10.0.0-M6 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote | ≥ 9.0.0.M5&&< 9.0.36 | 9.0.36org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote:9.0.36 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote | ≥ 8.5.1&&< 8.5.56 | 8.5.56org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote:8.5.56 |
Affected Products
tomcatapacheubuntu linuxcanonicaldebian linuxdebianoncommand system managernetappleapopensuseagile engineering data managementoracleDetection & 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, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.tomcat:tomcat to 10.0.0-M6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-vf77-8h7g-gghp is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
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 Certificate System 10.0 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8's Identity Management, are using a vulnerable version of Tomcat that is bundled into the pki-servlet-engine component. However, HTTP/2 is not enabled in such a configuration, and it is not possible to trigger the flaw in a supported setup. A future update…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Fuse 7.9 | tomcat | RHSA-2021:3140 |
| Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.3 on RHEL 6 | jws5-tomcat-0:9.0.30-5.redhat_6.1.el6jws | RHSA-2020:3306 |
| Red Hat JBoss Web Server (JWS) 5.3 | tomcat | RHSA-2020:3308 |
| Red Hat Runtimes Spring Boot 2.2.6 | tomcat | RHSA-2020:3806 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-vf77-8h7g-gghp in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.