Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-42794

Medium

Published: 10 October 2023

Published
10 October 2023
Modified
29 October 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0032 55.9th percentile
Risk Priority 12 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2023-42794 is a medium-severity Incomplete Cleanup (CWE-459) vulnerability in Apache Tomcat. Its CVSS base score is 5.9 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked in the top 44.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Incomplete Cleanup vulnerability in Apache Tomcat. The internal fork of Commons FileUpload packaged with Apache Tomcat 9.0.70 through 9.0.80 and 8.5.85 through 8.5.93 included an unreleased, in progress refactoring that exposed a potential denial of service on Windows if a…

more

web application opened a stream for an uploaded file but failed to close the stream. The file would never be deleted from disk creating the possibility of an eventual denial of service due to the disk being full. Other, EOL versions may also be affected. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 9.0.81 onwards or 8.5.94 onwards, which fixes the issue.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

apache
tomcat
8.5.85 — 8.5.94 · 9.0.70 — 9.0.81

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-459

Mandates complete sanitization during cleanup so that shared resources (memory, caches, buffers) do not retain data across subjects.

addresses: CWE-459

Operational retention schedules mandate complete cleanup of temporary or residual sensitive data after use.

addresses: CWE-459

Termination of the non-persistent artifact guarantees cleanup of temporary state, directly countering incomplete cleanup weaknesses.

addresses: CWE-459

Fail-safe procedures can explicitly require cleanup of temporary state, resources, or privileges on failure to avoid leaving the system in an inconsistent state.

addresses: CWE-459

The explicit delete step when information is no longer needed implements the cleanup that this weakness omits.

addresses: CWE-459

Enforces complete cleanup and sanitization steps during disposal, closing gaps that leave data remnants on retired components.

References