Vulnerabilities
Misconfiguration
Compliance
CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-6797

Incorrect Authorization

Published: Aug 10, 2017 | Modified: Apr 20, 2025
CVSS 3.x
7.5
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVSS 2.x
5 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V2
2.6 LOW
AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V3
3.7 LOW
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Ubuntu
LOW
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Additional information
NVDhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-6797
CWEhttps://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/863.html

The ResourceLinkFactory implementation in Apache Tomcat 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.M9, 8.5.0 to 8.5.4, 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.36, 7.0.0 to 7.0.70 and 6.0.0 to 6.0.45 did not limit web application access to global JNDI resources to those resources explicitly linked to the web application. Therefore, it was possible for a web application to access any global JNDI resource whether an explicit ResourceLink had been configured or not.

Weakness

The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check.

Affected Software

NameVendorStart VersionEnd Version
TomcatApache6.0.0 (including)6.0.45 (including)
TomcatApache7.0.0 (including)7.0.70 (including)
TomcatApache8.0 (including)8.0.36 (including)
TomcatApache8.5.0 (including)8.5.4 (including)
TomcatApache9.0.0-milestone1 (including)9.0.0-milestone1 (including)
TomcatApache9.0.0-milestone2 (including)9.0.0-milestone2 (including)
TomcatApache9.0.0-milestone3 (including)9.0.0-milestone3 (including)
TomcatApache9.0.0-milestone4 (including)9.0.0-milestone4 (including)
TomcatApache9.0.0-milestone5 (including)9.0.0-milestone5 (including)
TomcatApache9.0.0-milestone6 (including)9.0.0-milestone6 (including)
TomcatApache9.0.0-milestone7 (including)9.0.0-milestone7 (including)
TomcatApache9.0.0-milestone8 (including)9.0.0-milestone8 (including)
TomcatApache9.0.0-milestone9 (including)9.0.0-milestone9 (including)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7RedHattomcat-0:7.0.76-2.el7*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3.1RedHat*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6RedHathibernate4-eap6-0:4.2.23-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el6*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6RedHatjbcs-httpd24-0:1-3.jbcs.el6*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6RedHatjbcs-httpd24-apache-commons-daemon-0:1.0.15-1.redhat_2.1.jbcs.el6*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6RedHatjbcs-httpd24-apache-commons-daemon-jsvc-1:1.0.15-17.redhat_2.jbcs.el6*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6RedHatmod_cluster-0:1.3.5-2.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el6*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6RedHattomcat7-0:7.0.70-16.ep7.el6*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6RedHattomcat8-0:8.0.36-17.ep7.el6*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6RedHattomcat-native-0:1.2.8-9.redhat_9.ep7.el6*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6RedHattomcat-vault-0:1.0.8-9.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el6*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7RedHathibernate4-eap6-0:4.2.23-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el7*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7RedHatjbcs-httpd24-0:1-3.jbcs.el7*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7RedHatjbcs-httpd24-apache-commons-daemon-0:1.0.15-1.redhat_2.1.jbcs.el7*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7RedHatjbcs-httpd24-apache-commons-daemon-jsvc-1:1.0.15-17.redhat_2.jbcs.el7*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7RedHatmod_cluster-0:1.3.5-2.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el7*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7RedHattomcat7-0:7.0.70-16.ep7.el7*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7RedHattomcat8-0:8.0.36-17.ep7.el7*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7RedHattomcat-native-0:1.2.8-9.redhat_9.ep7.el7*
Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7RedHattomcat-vault-0:1.0.8-9.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el7*
Tomcat6Ubuntuesm-apps/xenial*
Tomcat6Ubuntuesm-infra-legacy/trusty*
Tomcat6Ubuntuprecise*
Tomcat6Ubuntutrusty*
Tomcat6Ubuntutrusty/esm*
Tomcat6Ubuntuupstream*
Tomcat6Ubuntuxenial*
Tomcat7Ubuntuartful*
Tomcat7Ubuntuesm-apps/xenial*
Tomcat7Ubuntuesm-infra-legacy/trusty*
Tomcat7Ubuntuprecise*
Tomcat7Ubuntutrusty*
Tomcat7Ubuntutrusty/esm*
Tomcat7Ubuntuupstream*
Tomcat7Ubuntuxenial*
Tomcat7Ubuntuyakkety*
Tomcat7Ubuntuzesty*
Tomcat8Ubuntuesm-infra/xenial*
Tomcat8Ubuntuupstream*
Tomcat8Ubuntuxenial*

Potential Mitigations

  • Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
  • Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.
  • Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
  • For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].
  • For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page.
  • One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.

References

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