# CVE-2015-9287: Path traversal in n/a

> Attackers can manipulate the unsigned 'kid' field to force the application to load RSA public keys from unintended locations, bypassing message integrity checks.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 13 May 2019
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-x442-g765-4pv9

## What is CVE-2015-9287?

CVE-2015-9287 is a critical path traversal vulnerability in n/a, published on 13 May 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Directory Traversal was discovered in University of Cambridge mod_ucam_webauth before 2.0.2. The key identification field ("kid") of the IdP's HTTP response message ("WLS-Response") can be manipulated by an attacker. The "kid" field is not signed like the rest of the message, and manipulation is therefore trivial. The "kid" field should only ever represent an integer. However, it is possible to provide any string value. An attacker could use this to their advantage to force the application agent to load the RSA public key required for message integrity checking from an unintended location.

Weakness: CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-9287?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cam the University of Cambridge Web Authentication System Apache Authentication Agent.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-9287?

No fix has been published for CVE-2015-9287 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2015-9287 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-9287 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-9287 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-9287 is a critical path traversal vulnerability in n/a, published on 13 May 2019. 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-2015-9287 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

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-2015-9287/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-9287/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-9287
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-9287
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-9287

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-9287/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.