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Home >> Browse Vulnerability Assessment Database >> CGI abuses : XSS >> Apache Tomcat /servlet Cross Site Scripting

Vulnerability Assessment Details

Apache Tomcat /servlet Cross Site Scripting

Vulnerability Assessment Summary
Tests for Apache Tomcat /servlet XSS Bug

Detailed Explanation for this Vulnerability Assessment

Summary :

The remote Apache Tomcat web server is vulnerable to a cross site scripting
issue.

Description :

Apache Tomcat is the servlet container that is used in the official Reference
Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies.

By using the /servlet/ mapping to invoke various servlets / classes it is
possible to cause Tomcat to throw an exception, permiting XSS attacks,e.g:

tomcat-server/servlet/org.apache.catalina.servlets.WebdavStatus/SCRIPTalert(document.domain)/SCRIPT
tomcat-server/servlet/org.apache.catalina.ContainerServlet/SCRIPTalert(document.domain)/SCRIPT
tomcat-server/servlet/org.apache.catalina.Context/SCRIPTalert(document.domain)/SCRIPT
tomcat-server/servlet/org.apache.catalina.Globals/SCRIPTalert(document.domain)/SCRIPT

(angle brackets omitted)

Solution :

The 'invoker' servlet (mapped to /servlet/), which executes anonymous servlet
classes that have not been defined in a web.xml file should be unmapped.

The entry for this can be found in the /tomcat-install-dir/conf/web.xml file.

See also :

www.westpoint.ltd.uk/advisories/wp-02-0008.txt

Network Security Threat Level:

Low / CVSS Base Score : 3
(AV:R/AC:H/Au:NR/C:P/A:N/I:N/B:C)

Networks Security ID: 5193

Vulnerability Assessment Copyright: This script is Copyright (C) 2002 Matt Moore

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