CVE-2020-9484
HighCVSS 7.0Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Very high risk99th percentile - higher than 99% of all known CVEs
Summary
In Apache Tomcat versions 10.0.0-M1 to 10.0.0-M4, 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.34, 8.5.0 to 8.5.54 and 7.0.0 to 7.0.103, if an attacker can control the contents and name of a file on the server, and the server is configured with PersistenceManager using FileStore and appropriate filters, remote code execution via deserialization is possible.
Risk Assessment
An attacker can execute arbitrary code on the server, leading to full system compromise.
Recommendation
Upgrade Apache Tomcat to a version that includes the fix (e.g., 9.0.35, 8.5.55, 7.0.104 or later) and configure PersistenceManager with appropriate filters.
Other vulnerabilities in Apache Tomcat
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- CVE-2026-42498High
A vulnerability in Apache Tomcat related to the exposure of the HTTP Authentication Header to unexpected hosts during WebSocket authentication. It affects versions from 11.0.0-M1 to 11.0.21, 10.1.0-M1 to 10.1.54, 9.0.2 to 9.0.117, 8.5.24 to 8.5.100, and 7.0.83 to 7.0.109.
- CVE-2026-41284High
There is a vulnerability in Apache Tomcat related to resource allocation without limits or throttling. This affects versions from 11.0.0-M1 to 11.0.21, from 10.1.0-M1 to 10.1.54, and from 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.117.
- CVE-2025-48989High
A vulnerability in Apache Tomcat related to improper resource shutdown or release allows for a 'made you reset' attack. This affects versions from 11.0.0-M1 to 11.0.9, from 10.1.0-M1 to 10.1.43, and from 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.107.
- CVE-2017-7675High
The HTTP/2 implementation in Apache Tomcat from version 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.M21 and from 8.5.0 to 8.5.15 bypassed several security checks that prevented directory traversal attacks. It was therefore possible to bypass security constraints using a specially crafted URL.
- CVE-2016-6817High
The HTTP/2 header parser in Apache Tomcat versions 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.M11 and 8.5.0 to 8.5.6 entered an infinite loop if a header larger than the available buffer was received. This made a denial of service attack possible.
- CVE-2017-5664High
The error page mechanism of the Java Servlet Specification requires that the original request and response be forwarded to the error page. For static files, the expected behavior is to serve the content of the file as if processing a GET request, which was not implemented in Apache Tomcat versions 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.M20, 8.5.0 to 8.5.14, 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.43, and 7.0.0 to 7.0.77.
- CVE-2017-5650High
In Apache Tomcat versions 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0.M18 and 8.5.0 to 8.5.12, the handling of an HTTP/2 GOAWAY frame did not close streams associated with that connection waiting for a WINDOW_UPDATE, potentially leading to exhaustion of available processing threads.
- CVE-2017-5647High
A bug in the handling of pipelined requests in Apache Tomcat causes the request to be lost when send file processing of the previous request is completed. This can lead to responses being sent for the wrong requests.
- CVE-2016-6816High
The code in Apache Tomcat versions from 6.0.0 to 9.0.0.M11 allowed parsing of the HTTP request line with invalid characters. This could be exploited in conjunction with a proxy that also accepted these characters to inject data into the HTTP response.
Original NVD description (English source)
When using Apache Tomcat versions 10.0.0-M1 to 10.0.0-M4, 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.34, 8.5.0 to 8.5.54 and 7.0.0 to 7.0.103 if a) an attacker is able to control the contents and name of a file on the server; and b) the server is configured to use the PersistenceManager with a FileStore; and c) the PersistenceManager is configured with sessionAttributeValueClassNameFilter="null" (the default unless a SecurityManager is used) or a sufficiently lax filter to allow the attacker provided object to be deserialized; and d) the attacker knows the relative file path from the storage location used by FileStore to the file the attacker has control over; then, using a specifically crafted request, the attacker will be able to trigger remote code execution via deserialization of the file under their control. Note that all of conditions a) to d) must be true for the attack to succeed.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS