Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2016-9774

The postinst script in the tomcat6 package before 6.0.45+dfsg-1~deb7u4 on Debian wheezy, before 6.0.35-1ubuntu3.9 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; the tomcat7 package before 7.0.28-4+deb7u8 on Debian wheezy, before 7.0.56-3+deb8u6 on Debian jessie, before 7.0.52-1ubuntu0.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS, and 16.10; and the tomcat8 package before 8.0.14-1+deb8u5 on Debian jessie, before 8.0.32-1ubuntu1.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, before 8.0.37-1ubuntu0.1 on Ubuntu 16.10, and before 8.0.38-2ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 17.04 might allow local users with access to the tomcat account to obtain sensitive information or gain root privileges via a symlink attack on the Catalina localhost directory.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 3 products from debian, from canonical, from apache organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2017, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2017-03-23T16:59:00.293

Last Modified

2025-04-20T01:37:25.860

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.0: 7.8 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Access Vector: LOCAL
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: COMPLETE
Integrity Impact: COMPLETE
Availability Impact: COMPLETE

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

10.0

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-59

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	7.0	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	8.0	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	12.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	14.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.10	Yes
Application	apache	tomcat	6.0	Yes
Application	apache	tomcat	7.0	Yes
Application	apache	tomcat	8.0	Yes

References

http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3738 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3739 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/12/02/10 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/12/02/5 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94643 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3177-1 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3177-2 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=845393 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20180731-0002/ ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3738 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3739 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/12/02/10 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/12/02/5 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94643 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3177-1 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3177-2 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=845393 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20180731-0002/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For debian's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.