The Apache Software Foundation informed users over the weekend that updates for the Tomcat application server address several vulnerabilities, including issues that can lead to information disclosure and a denial-of-service (DoS) condition.
Apache Tomcat is an open source implementation of the Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages (JSP), Java WebSocket and Java Expression Language technologies. Tomcat is the most widely used web application server, with a market share of over 60 percent.
One of the more serious flaws, CVE-2018-8037, impacts Tomcat versions 9.0.0.M9 through 9.0.9 and 8.5.5 through 8.5.31. Patches are included in Tomcat 9.0.10 and 8.5.32.
The vulnerability, rated “important,” has been described by the Apache Software Foundation as an information disclosure issue caused by a bug in the tracking of connection closures that can lead to user sessions getting mixed up.
Another security hole rated “important” is CVE-2018-1336, a bug in the UTF-8 decoder that can lead to a DoS condition. The flaw affects Tomcat versions 7.0.x, 8.0.x, 8.5.x and 9.0.x, and it has been resolved with the release of versions 9.0.7, 8.5.32, 8.0.52 and 7.0.90.
“An improper handling of overflow in the UTF-8 decoder with supplementary characters can lead to an infinite loop in the decoder causing a Denial of Service,” the Apache Software Foundation said in its advisory.
The latest Tomcat 7.0.x, 8.0.x, 8.5.x and 9.0.x releases also patch a low severity security constraints bypass issue tracked as CVE-2018-8034.
“The host name verification when using TLS with the WebSocket client was missing. It is now enabled by default,” reads the advisory for this vulnerability.
US-CERT has also released an alert, recommending that users review the Apache advisories and apply the updates.
Apache Tomcat vulnerabilities are less likely to be exploited in the wild. There was a worm targeting Apache Tomcat servers a few years ago, but it leveraged common username and password combinations rather than exploiting any vulnerabilities.
The Apache Software Foundation also informed customers last week of vulnerabilities impacting Apache Ignite, an open source memory-centric distributed database, caching, and processing platform. Ignite is currently ranked 66 by DB-Engines.
Ignite is impacted by two security holes, both of which could lead to arbitrary code execution .
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