Apache Tomcat Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2019-0232) Threat Alert

Overview

On April 10, local time, Apache Software Foundation officially released a security advisory, announcing the fix of a remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2019-0232). The Java Runtime Environment (JRE), when running on a Windows system with enableCmdLineArguments enabled, passes command-line parameters to Windows in an incorrect manner. This leads to the CGI servlet susceptible to remote code execution attacks. By default, the CGI servlet is disabled.

For details about this vulnerability, visit the following links:

https://codewhitesec.blogspot.com/2016/02/java-and-command-line-injections-in-windows.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20161228144344/https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/twistylittlepassagesallalike/2011/04/23/everyone-quotes-command-line-arguments-the-wrong-way/

Affected Versions

• Apache Tomcat 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.17
• Apache Tomcat 8.5.0 to 8.5.39
• Apache Tomcat 7.0.0 to 7.0.93

Unaffected Versions

• Apache Tomcat 9.0.18
• Apache Tomcat 8.5.40
• Apache Tomcat 7.0.94

Solution

Apache Software Foundation has not officially released the preceding latest versions yet. Affected users of this software should keep an eye on such versions and apply updates as soon as they are available. Also, users can set enableCmdLineArguments, an initialization parameter of the CGI servlet, to false for protection.

Reference links:

http://tomcat.apache.org/security-7.html

http://tomcat.apache.org/security-8.html

http://tomcat.apache.org/security-9.html

• Statement

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