# CVE-2016-2165: Cross-site scripting in Cloud Foundry

> Attackers can inject malicious scripts into 404 error responses via unsanitized URL paths in Cloud Foundry Loggregator Traffic Controller.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 25 May 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-p5pc-pcfq-64rw

## What is CVE-2016-2165?

CVE-2016-2165 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Pivotal Cloud Foundry, published on 25 May 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

The Loggregator Traffic Controller endpoints in cf-release v231 and lower, Pivotal Elastic Runtime versions prior to 1.5.19 AND 1.6.x versions prior to 1.6.20 are not cleansing request URL paths when they are invalid and are returning them in the 404 response. This could allow malicious scripts to be written directly into the 404 response.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-2165?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Cloudfoundry Cf-Release, Pivotal Software Cloud Foundry Elastic Runtime.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-2165?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-2165 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-2165 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-2165 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Pivotal Cloud Foundry

- [CVE-2015-5171](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5171/): Cloud Foundry Runtime Insufficient Session Expiration vulnerability (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2015-5172](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5172/): Cloud Foundry Runtime has Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-8218](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8218/): Auth bypass in Cloud Foundry (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-4992](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-4992/): Cloud Foundry UAA privilege escalation with user invitations (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-6658](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6658/): Information disclosure in n/a (critical 9.6)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-2165 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-2165 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Pivotal Cloud Foundry, published on 25 May 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-2165 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Pivotal Cloud Foundry. 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-2016-2165/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-2165/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-2165
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-2165
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-2165

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-2165/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.