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Vulnerability Intelligence

CVE-2016-5388

High

Improper Access Control in Apache Tomcat

Published May 13, 2022 · Updated Oct 15, 2026 · Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2016-5388, DLA-1883-1, GHSA-v646-rx6w-r3qq, SUSE-SU-2016:2229-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-5388, USN-4791-1

Key Facts

Patch immediately
  • CVE-2016-5388 is a high-severity vulnerability (CVSS 8.1 v3.1) affecting Tomcat (Apache), System Management Homepage (Hp), Linux (Oracle) and 22 more products.
  • It is not listed in any known-exploited vulnerabilities catalog. No public exploit code is known.
  • EPSS estimates a 51% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
  • Fixed versions are available, including Tomcat 6.0.45, Tomcat NA, Tomcat 0:7.0.54-8.el7_2.
  • Brandefense priority: patch immediately, because it is very likely to be exploited soon.

CVSS v3.1

8.1

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS (30-day exploit likelihood)

51%

Higher than 98.9% of all scored CVEs

Exploited in the wild

No known

Not in a known-exploited catalog

Public exploit code

None known

Get the full CVE-2016-5388 brief as a PDF

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Description

Apache Tomcat 7.x through 7.0.70 and 8.x through 8.5.4, when the CGI Servlet is enabled, follows RFC 3875 section 4.1.18 and therefore does not protect applications from the presence of untrusted client data in the HTTP_PROXY environment variable, which might allow remote attackers to redirect an application's outbound HTTP traffic to an arbitrary proxy server via a crafted Proxy header in an HTTP request, aka an "httpoxy" issue. NOTE: the vendor states "A mitigation is planned for future releases of Tomcat, tracked as CVE-2016-5388"; in other words, this is not a CVE ID for a vulnerability.

Affected Products

186 affected entries in total
ProductAffected versionsFixed in
TomcatApacheSee advisory6.0.45
System Management HomepageHpSee advisory7.5.5.0
LinuxOracle6, 7n/a
Enterprise Linux DesktopRedhat6.0, 7.0n/a
Enterprise Linux Hpc NodeRedhat6.0, 7.0n/a
20 more affected products in the full CVE brief

Patched Releases

Tomcat

6.0.45, NA, 0:7.0.54-8.el7_2, 7.0.54-8.el7_2, 7.0.78-7.13.4, 8.0.32-8.1, 8.0.32-8.7

tomcat-webapps

NA, 7.0.54-8.el7_2, 7.0.78-7.13.4, 8.0.32-8.1, 8.0.32-8.7

System Management Homepage

7.5.5.0

httpd24

0:2.4.6-62.ep7.el6, 0:2.4.6-62.ep7.el7

org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina

7.0.72, 8.5.5

tomcat-admin-webapps

7.0.54-8.el7_2, 7.0.78-7.13.4, 8.0.32-8.1, 8.0.32-8.7

tomcat-docs-webapp

7.0.54-8.el7_2, 7.0.78-7.13.4, 8.0.32-8.1, 8.0.32-8.7

tomcat-el-2_2-api

7.0.78-7.13.4

tomcat-el-2.2-api

7.0.54-8.el7_2

tomcat-el-3_0-api

8.0.32-8.1, 8.0.32-8.7

tomcat-embed

8.0.32-8.1

tomcat-javadoc

7.0.54-8.el7_2, 7.0.78-7.13.4, 8.0.32-8.1, 8.0.32-8.7

tomcat-jsp-2_2-api

7.0.78-7.13.4

tomcat-jsp-2_3-api

8.0.32-8.1, 8.0.32-8.7

tomcat-jsp-2.2-api

7.0.54-8.el7_2

tomcat-jsvc

7.0.54-8.el7_2, 8.0.32-8.1

tomcat-lib

7.0.54-8.el7_2, 7.0.78-7.13.4, 8.0.32-8.1, 8.0.32-8.7

tomcat-servlet-3_0-api

7.0.78-7.13.4

tomcat-servlet-3_1-api

8.0.32-8.1, 8.0.32-8.7

tomcat-servlet-3.0-api

7.0.54-8.el7_2

tomcat6

0:6.0.24-98.el6_8, 6.0.24-98.el6_8, 6.0.45-0.53.2, 6.0.45-1.5.amzn1, 6.0.53-0.56.1

tomcat6-admin-webapps

6.0.24-98.el6_8, 6.0.45-0.53.2, 6.0.45-1.5.amzn1, 6.0.53-0.56.1

tomcat6-docs-webapp

6.0.24-98.el6_8, 6.0.45-0.53.2, 6.0.45-1.5.amzn1, 6.0.53-0.56.1

tomcat6-el-2.1-api

6.0.24-98.el6_8, 6.0.45-1.5.amzn1

tomcat6-javadoc

6.0.24-98.el6_8, 6.0.45-0.53.2, 6.0.45-1.5.amzn1, 6.0.53-0.56.1

Timeline

  1. Publicly disclosed

    May 13, 2022

  2. Last updated

    Oct 15, 2026

Weakness Type

  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation
  • CWE-284 Improper Access Control

References

15 more references in the full CVE brief

FAQ

Common Questions.

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