CVEvulnerability

CVE-2020-1938

9.8 CRITICAL Known exploited Published 2020-02-24 Modified 2026-08-25 Official page ↗

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Apache Tomcat Improper Privilege Management Vulnerability — Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat treats Apache JServ Protocol (AJP) connections as having higher trust than, for example, a similar HTTP connection. If such connections are available to an attacker, they can be exploited.

Added to KEV
2022-03-03
Remediation due
2022-03-17
Ransomware use
Unknown
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Notes
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-1938
Status
Analyzed
Published
2020-02-24
Last modified
2026-08-25
Assigner
[email protected]
CVSS 3.1 ([email protected])
9.8 CRITICAL — CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 3.1 (134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0)
9.8 CRITICAL — CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.0 ([email protected])
7.5 HIGH — AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Description

When using the Apache JServ Protocol (AJP), care must be taken when trusting incoming connections to Apache Tomcat. Tomcat treats AJP connections as having higher trust than, for example, a similar HTTP connection. If such connections are available to an attacker, they can be exploited in ways that may be surprising. In Apache Tomcat 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.30, 8.5.0 to 8.5.50 and 7.0.0 to 7.0.99, Tomcat shipped with an AJP Connector enabled by default that listened on all configured IP addresses. It was expected (and recommended in the security guide) that this Connector would be disabled if not required. This vulnerability report identified a mechanism that allowed: - returning arbitrary files from anywhere in the web application - processing any file in the web application as a JSP Further, if the web application allowed file upload and stored those files within the web application (or the attacker was able to control the content of the web application by some other means) then this, along with the ability to process a file as a JSP, made remote code execution possible. It is important to note that mitigation is only required if an AJP port is accessible to untrusted users. Users wishing to take a defence-in-depth approach and block the vector that permits returning arbitrary files and execution as JSP may upgrade to Apache Tomcat 9.0.31, 8.5.51 or 7.0.100 or later. A number of changes were made to the default AJP Connector configuration in 9.0.31 to harden the default configuration. It is likely that users upgrading to 9.0.31, 8.5.51 or 7.0.100 or later will need to make small changes to their configurations.

Affected configurations

• apache geode 1.12.0 • apache tomcat (>= 7.0.0 < 7.0.100) • apache tomcat (>= 8.5.0 < 8.5.51) • apache tomcat (>= 9.0.0 < 9.0.31) • fedoraproject fedora 30 • fedoraproject fedora 31 • fedoraproject fedora 32 • oracle agile engineering data management 6.2.1.0 • oracle agile product lifecycle management 9.3.3 • oracle agile product lifecycle management 9.3.5 • oracle agile product lifecycle management 9.3.6 • oracle communications element manager 8.1.1 • oracle communications element manager 8.2.0 • oracle communications element manager 8.2.1 • oracle communications instant messaging server 10.0.1.4.0 • oracle health sciences empirica inspections 1.0.1.2 • oracle health sciences empirica signal 7.3.3 • oracle hospitality guest access 4.2.0 • oracle hospitality guest access 4.2.1 • oracle instantis enterprisetrack (>= 17.1 <= 17.3) • oracle mysql enterprise monitor (<= 4.0.12) • oracle mysql enterprise monitor (>= 8.0.0 <= 8.0.20) • oracle siebel ui framework (<= 20.5) • oracle transportation management 6.3.7 • oracle workload manager 12.2.0.1 • oracle workload manager 18c • oracle workload manager 19c • debian debian linux 8.0 • debian debian linux 9.0 • debian debian linux 10.0 • opensuse leap 15.1 • blackberry good control (<= 5.2.58.38) • blackberry workspaces server 7.0.1 • blackberry workspaces server 7.1.2 • blackberry workspaces server 8.1.0 • blackberry workspaces server 9.0 • netapp data availability services • netapp oncommand system manager (>= 3.0.0 <= 3.1.3)

References