CVE-2007-3385 in Tomcat
Summary
by MITRE
Apache Tomcat 6.0.0 to 6.0.13, 5.5.0 to 5.5.24, 5.0.0 to 5.0.30, 4.1.0 to 4.1.36, and 3.3 to 3.3.2 does not properly handle the \" character sequence in a cookie value, which might cause sensitive information such as session IDs to be leaked to remote attackers and enable session hijacking attacks.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/13/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-3385 affects multiple versions of the Apache Tomcat web application server across its major release lines including versions 3.3 through 3.3.2, 4.1.0 through 4.1.36, 5.0.0 through 5.0.30, 5.5.0 through 5.5.24, and 6.0.0 through 6.0.13. This flaw represents a critical security issue that stems from improper handling of cookie value sequences containing the backslash character followed by a double quote. The vulnerability manifests when Tomcat processes cookies that contain the specific character sequence "\" which can lead to improper parsing and potential information disclosure. The root cause of this issue aligns with CWE-1277, which addresses improper handling of special characters in cookie values, and specifically relates to CWE-20, which covers improper input validation. The vulnerability creates a condition where sensitive session identifiers and other confidential data embedded within cookie values may be inadvertently exposed to remote attackers. This occurs because the web server fails to properly sanitize or escape cookie values before processing them, allowing the malicious character sequence to interfere with the normal cookie parsing mechanism.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant and directly enables session hijacking attacks that can compromise user authentication and authorization. When remote attackers exploit this weakness, they can potentially extract session identifiers and other sensitive information from cookie values, allowing them to impersonate legitimate users and gain unauthorized access to protected resources. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and can be exploited through standard web traffic without requiring special privileges or authentication. Attackers can craft malicious cookies containing the problematic character sequence to trigger the information leakage, which then enables them to reconstruct session tokens and hijack user sessions. This vulnerability directly maps to ATT&CK technique T1566.001, which covers credential access through social engineering, and also relates to T1071.004 for application layer protocol usage. The session hijacking capability makes this vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can lead to complete account compromise and unauthorized access to sensitive applications and data. The vulnerability affects the confidentiality and integrity of the web application by allowing unauthorized disclosure of session information, which undermines the core security model of web applications that rely on session management for user authentication.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2007-3385 require immediate action to address the affected versions of Apache Tomcat. The most effective solution involves upgrading to patched versions of Tomcat that properly handle cookie values containing the problematic character sequence, specifically versions beyond the affected ranges mentioned in the vulnerability description. Organizations should implement comprehensive cookie validation and sanitization measures at the application level to prevent the injection of malicious character sequences into cookie values. Security teams should also deploy web application firewalls and intrusion detection systems that can monitor for suspicious cookie patterns and block requests containing the vulnerable character sequences. Additionally, implementing proper input validation and output encoding for all cookie data can prevent the exploitation of this vulnerability. The mitigation approach should follow security best practices outlined in OWASP Top Ten and NIST guidelines for web application security. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to ensure that no other similar vulnerabilities exist within the web application infrastructure. Organizations should also implement monitoring and logging mechanisms to detect any attempts to exploit this vulnerability and establish incident response procedures to address potential breaches. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and the need for robust security testing of web application components that handle user-supplied data, particularly in authentication and session management modules.