CVE-2016-1240

The Tomcat init script in the tomcat7 package before 7.0.56-3+deb8u4 and tomcat8 package before 8.0.14-1+deb8u3 on Debian jessie and the tomcat6 and libtomcat6-java packages before 6.0.35-1ubuntu3.8 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, the tomcat7 and libtomcat7-java packages before 7.0.52-1ubuntu0.7 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and tomcat8 and libtomcat8-java packages before 8.0.32-1ubuntu1.2 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS allows local users with access to the tomcat account to gain root privileges via a symlink attack on the Catalina log file, as demonstrated by /var/log/tomcat7/catalina.out.

• CWE-20

• http://legalhackers.com/advisories/Tomcat-DebPkgs-Root-Privilege-Escalation-Exploit-CVE-2016-1240.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/170857/Apache-Tomcat-On-Ubuntu-Log-Init-Privilege-Escalation.html
• http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0457.html
• http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3669Third Party Advisory
• http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3670Third Party Advisory
• http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/539519/100/0/threaded
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93263
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036845Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
• http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3081-1Third Party Advisory
• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:0455
• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:0456
• https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201705-09
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20180731-0002/
• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40450/
• http://legalhackers.com/advisories/Tomcat-DebPkgs-Root-Privilege-Escalation-Exploit-CVE-2016-1240.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/170857/Apache-Tomcat-On-Ubuntu-Log-Init-Privilege-Escalation.html
• http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0457.html
• http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3669Third Party Advisory
• http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3670Third Party Advisory
• http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/539519/100/0/threaded
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93263
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036845Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
• http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3081-1Third Party Advisory
• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:0455
• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:0456
• https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201705-09
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20180731-0002/
• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40450/

Published

Oct 3, 2016

Last Modified

Jun 17, 2026

Status

Modified

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