CVE-2016-4465 Apache Struts vulnerable to possible DoS attack when using URLValidator

What is CVE-2016-4465?

CVE-2016-4465 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Apache Struts, published on 4 Jul 2016. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The URLValidator class in Apache Struts 2 2.3.20 through 2.3.28.1 and 2.5.x before 2.5.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a null value for a URL field.

Weakness: CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-4465?

4 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.apache.struts:struts2-core. It affects 1 product.

Products include Apache Struts.

How do I fix CVE-2016-4465?

Upgrade org.apache.struts:struts2-core to a fixed version for your release line: 2.3.29 or 2.5.13.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2016-4465 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-4465 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-xg75-68x3-7p3q.