# CVE-2005-2090: Tomcat Vulnerable to Web Cache Poisoning

> Remote attackers can poison web caches, bypass firewalls, and conduct XSS via HTTP request smuggling in Tomcat.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 30 Jun 2005
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-f2gq-p6qv-ccw4

## What is CVE-2005-2090?

CVE-2005-2090 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Apache Tomcat, published on 30 Jun 2005. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Jakarta Tomcat 5.0.19 (Coyote/1.1) and Tomcat 4.1.24 (Coyote/1.0) allows remote attackers to poison the web cache, bypass web application firewall protection, and conduct XSS attacks via an HTTP request with both a "Transfer-Encoding: chunked" header and a Content-Length header, which causes Tomcat to incorrectly handle and forward the body of the request in a way that causes the receiving server to process it as a separate HTTP request, aka "HTTP Request Smuggling."

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2005-2090?

4 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.apache.tomcat:tomcat. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `org.apache.tomcat:tomcat` | Maven | From 4.0.0 to 4.1.24 | None |
| `org.apache.tomcat:tomcat` | Maven | From 4.0.0 to 4.1.24 | None |
| `org.apache.tomcat:tomcat` | Maven | From 5.0.0 to 5.0.19 | None |
| `org.apache.tomcat:tomcat` | Maven | From 5.0.0 to 5.0.19 | None |

Products: Apache Tomcat.

## How do I fix CVE-2005-2090?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2005-2090 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2005-2090 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Apache Tomcat

- [CVE-2025-24813](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-24813/): Apache Tomcat Path Equivalence (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2016-8735](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8735/): Apache Tomcat Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-12617](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12617/): Apache Tomcat Remote Code Execution (high 8.1, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-12615](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12615/): Apache Tomcat on Windows Remote Code Execution (high 8.1, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-34486](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-34486/): Apache Tomcat Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data (high 7.5, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2005-2090 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2005-2090 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Apache Tomcat, published on 30 Jun 2005. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2005-2090 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- org.apache.tomcat:tomcat (Maven): affected from 4.0.0 up to 4.1.24; no fix listed
- org.apache.tomcat:tomcat (Maven): affected from 4.0.0 up to 4.1.24; no fix listed
- org.apache.tomcat:tomcat (Maven): affected from 5.0.0 up to 5.0.19; no fix listed
- org.apache.tomcat:tomcat (Maven): affected from 5.0.0 up to 5.0.19; no fix listed

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-2090/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-2090/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-2090
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2005-2090
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2005-2090

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-2090/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.