CVE-2012-5886 Improper Authentication in Apache Tomcat

What is CVE-2012-5886?

CVE-2012-5886 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Apache Tomcat, published on 17 Nov 2012. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The HTTP Digest Access Authentication implementation in Apache Tomcat 5.5.x before 5.5.36, 6.x before 6.0.36, and 7.x before 7.0.30 caches information about the authenticated user within the session state, which makes it easier for remote attackers to bypass authentication via vectors related to the session ID.

Weakness: CWE-287

Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-5886?

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

Products include Apache Tomcat.

How do I fix CVE-2012-5886?

Upgrade org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-catalina to a fixed version for your release line: 5.5.36, 6.0.36 or 7.0.30.

Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.

Is CVE-2012-5886 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-5886 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Apache Tomcat

• CVE-2025-24813 Apache Tomcat Path Equivalence Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2016-8735 Apache Tomcat Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2017-12617 Apache Tomcat Remote Code Execution Exploited High 8.1
• CVE-2017-12615 Apache Tomcat on Windows Remote Code Execution Exploited High 8.1
• CVE-2026-34486 Apache Tomcat Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data Exploited High 7.5

All Apache Tomcat vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-9xrj-439h-62hg.