CVE-2023-46589
Published: 28 November 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-46589 is a high-severity HTTP Request/Response Smuggling (CWE-444) vulnerability in Apache Tomcat. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 2.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
Apache Tomcat contains an improper input validation vulnerability (CWE-444) affecting versions 11.0.0-M1 through 11.0.0-M10, 10.1.0-M1 through 10.1.15, 9.0.0-M1 through 9.0.82, and 8.5.0 through 8.5.95, along with certain older end-of-life releases. The flaw stems from incorrect parsing of HTTP trailer headers that exceed the configured size limit, allowing a single request to be misinterpreted as multiple requests.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the issue over the network by supplying a malicious trailer header in an HTTP request. When Tomcat operates behind a reverse proxy, this can enable request smuggling attacks that achieve high-integrity impacts such as bypassing access controls or cache poisoning, consistent with the CVSS 7.5 rating.
Apache project advisories direct users to upgrade to 11.0.0-M11, 10.1.16, 9.0.83, or 8.5.96 or later to resolve the parsing error. Coordinated notices from Debian LTS and NetApp similarly reference these patched releases and the associated Apache mailing-list announcements.
The EPSS score reached a peak of 0.5951 with a current value of 0.5316.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-2957
Vulnerability details
Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Apache Tomcat.Tomcat from 11.0.0-M1 through 11.0.0-M10, from 10.1.0-M1 through 10.1.15, from 9.0.0-M1 through 9.0.82 and from 8.5.0 through 8.5.95 did not correctly parse HTTP trailer headers. A trailer header that exceeded the header size limit…
more
could cause Tomcat to treat a single request as multiple requests leading to the possibility of request smuggling when behind a reverse proxy. Older, EOL versions may also be affected. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 11.0.0-M11 onwards, 10.1.16 onwards, 9.0.83 onwards or 8.5.96 onwards, which fix the issue.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
No mitigating controls mapped yet. The per-CVE control annotator has not reached this CVE.