GhostCat: New High-Risk Vulnerability Affects Servers Running Apache Tomcat | | If your web server is running on Apache Tomcat, you should immediately install the latest available version of the server application to prevent hackers from taking unauthorized control over it. Yes, that's possible because all versions (9.x/8.x/7.x/6.x) of the Apache Tomcat released in the past 13 years have been found vulnerable to a new high-severity (CVSS 9.8) 'file read and inclusion bug'—which can be exploited in the default configuration. | But it's more concerning because several proof-of-concept exploits for this vulnerability have also been surfaced on the Internet, making it easy for anyone to hack into publicly accessible vulnerable web servers. Dubbed 'Ghostcat' and tracked as CVE-2020-1938, the flaw could let unauthenticated, remote attackers read the content of any file on a vulnerable web server and obtain sensitive configuration files or source code, or execute arbitrary code if the server allows file upload, as shown in a demo below. | Chaitin researchers found and reported this flaw last month to the Apache Tomcat project, who has now released Apache Tomcat 9.0.31, 8.5.51, and 7.0.100 versions to patch the issue. Web administrators are strongly recommended to apply the software updates as soon as possible and advised to never expose AJP port to untrusted clients because it communicates over the insecure channel and meant to be used within a trusted network. However, if, for some reason, you can't upgrade your affected web server immediately, you can also disable the AJP Connector directly, or change its listening address to the localhost. | |
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