CVE-2016-4461 Apache Struts forced double OGNL evaluation

What is CVE-2016-4461?

CVE-2016-4461 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Apache Struts, published on 16 Oct 2017. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Apache Struts 2.x before 2.3.29 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a "%{}" sequence in a tag attribute, aka forced double OGNL evaluation. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2016-0785.

Weakness: CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-4461?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.apache.struts:struts2-core. It affects 2 products.

Products include Apache Struts, Netapp Oncommand Balance.

How do I fix CVE-2016-4461?

Upgrade org.apache.struts:struts2-core to 2.3.29 or later.

Upgrade, and never evaluate templates, expressions or code built from user input. More about Code injection.

Is CVE-2016-4461 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-4461 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Apache Struts

• CVE-2020-17530 Apache Struts Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2017-9791 Apache Struts 1 Improper Input Validation Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2017-5638 Apache Struts Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2012-0391 Apache Struts 2 Improper Input Validation Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-11776 Apache Struts Remote Code Execution Exploited High 8.1

All Apache Struts vulnerabilities

Sources

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

Also known as GHSA-864w-r5qj-h6fj.