[UNIX] Apache Jakarta Tomcat 3 URL Parsing Vulnerability

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Date: 01/30/03

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      Apache Jakarta Tomcat 3 URL Parsing Vulnerability
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    SUMMARY

    Tomcat is a JSP/Servlet implementation developed at the Apache Software
    Foundation. Tomcat versions 3.3.1 and earlier contain some security
    vulnerabilities that allow a remote user to retrieve listings of
    directories despite index.html or index.jsp files. It is also possible to
    retrieve contents of files and directories that should not be visible to
    outside.

    DETAILS

    Vulnerable systems:
     * Tomcat versions 3.3.1 and earlier

    Immune systems:
     * Tomcat version 3.3.1a

    Certain kinds of HTTP requests containing binary null or backslash
    characters are parsed incorrectly by Tomcat's built-in web server. The
    following GET request causes Tomcat to output the directory listing of the
    web root under default installation:
    GET /<null byte>.jsp HTTP/1.0

    The following UNIX command can be issued to test the vulnerability:
    $ perl -e 'print "GET /\x00.jsp HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n";' | nc my.server 8080

    If your server is vulnerable, the command will output a HTTP header and
    the directory listing even if there's an index file present. Furthermore,
    a backslash can be used in the following way to get information from
    otherwise inaccessible directories:
    $ perl -e 'print "GET /admin/WEB-INF\\classes/ContextAdmin.java\x00.jsp
    HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n";'|nc my.server 8080

    This will output the contents of ContextAdmin.java.

    The servlet engine interprets the directory listing and any file retrieved
    in this way as a JSP page, which might be exploited to run arbitrary Java
    code under some imaginable scenarios. If the attacker can create a file
    whose name contains JSP tags somewhere under the web root, the code would
    be run when the directory listing is fetched in the way described above.
    Similarly Java code embedded in *.html or any other file can be compiled
    and run by an attacker.

    Solution:
    The vendor was informed on January 10, 2003. A new version of Tomcat
    addressing this problem has been released. The fixed version 3.3.1a and
    additional information is available at
    <http://jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-tomcat/release/v3.3.1a/>
    http://jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-tomcat/release/v3.3.1a/

    According to the vendor, the problem only affects Tomcat used with JDK
    1.3.1 or earlier.

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

    The information has been provided by <mailto:jouko@solutions.fi> Jouko
    Pynnonen.

    ========================================

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