struts2: cross-site scripting vulnerability in the URLDecoder function
Published Apr 12, 2016
6.1
MEDIUMCVSS 3.0
EPSS 11.56%
Description
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the URLDecoder function in JRE before 1.8, as used in Apache Struts 2.x before 2.3.28, when using a single byte page encoding, allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via multi-byte characters in a url-encoded parameter.
Affected products
Remediation
Red Hat statement
A previous statement by Red Hat related to this CVE, prior to August 2019, said that Apache Struts 2 is not included in any Red Hat products. This earlier statement was incorrect. While Struts 2 is not actively compiled, shipped, used, or enabled in any Red Hat provided final products, and does not cause any vulnerability in the product, struts2-core jars have been included in some products' source code packages. The inclusion was part of an import of the Google Guice repository, which includes struts2-core. Customers that build artefacts from our source code could be at risk. Red Hat will remove these artefacts from source code in future releases. The products that included the Struts 2 artefacts in their source jars: Fuse Service Works 6.0.0 Single Sign On 7.3.0+ If you have used the source package from one of these products to build artefacts on your system, you should do the following to remove potentially affected jars: 1. Run 'find . -name struts2*.jar' under the source location 2. Remove any files found This will not affect the product, as the jar is included with the source of google-guice, but no functionality requiring struts2 is implemented.
Metrics
No CVSS v4.0 score for this CVE.
No CVSS v3.1 score for this CVE.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
This CVE is not in the KEV list.
No CISA SSVC assessment for this CVE yet.
Estimated probability of exploitation in the wild in the next 30 days (FIRST EPSS). As of Oct 1, 2026.
Score over time
2022–2026- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Percentile over time
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Table of values (21 key points)
Flat stretches are collapsed; showing up to 120 newest points.
| Date | Score | Percentile | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2026 | 11.56% (0.11562) | 95.91th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Sep 22, 2026 | 11.56% (0.11562) | 95.84th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Sep 21, 2026 | 9.61% (0.09605) | 95.32th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Sep 6, 2026 | 11.56% (0.11562) | 95.74th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Sep 5, 2026 | 9.61% (0.09605) | 95.22th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Aug 30, 2026 | 11.56% (0.11562) | 95.72th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Aug 28, 2026 | 9.61% (0.09605) | 95.19th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Aug 24, 2026 | 11.56% (0.11562) | 95.69th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Aug 23, 2026 | 9.61% (0.09605) | 95.17th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Jun 15, 2026 | 12.02% (0.12018) | 95.58th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Mar 4, 2026 | 2.18% (0.02182) | 84.08th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
| Mar 30, 2025 | 3.94% (0.03935) | 87.25th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
| Mar 29, 2025 | 6.41% (0.06411) | 84.61th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
| Mar 17, 2025 | 2.94% (0.02936) | 85.51th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
| Dec 17, 2024 | 11.55% (0.11551) | 95.22th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Dec 12, 2024 | 2.68% (0.02676) | 90.81th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Jul 10, 2024 | 1.91% (0.01905) | 88.67th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 7, 2023 | 1.91% (0.01905) | 86.67th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 6, 2023 | 4.24% (0.04240) | 87.48th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Apr 1, 2022 | 4.24% (0.04240) | 86.20th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 4, 2022 | 4.24% (0.04240) | 69.95th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
References (16)
- http://struts.apache.org/docs/s2-028.html x_refsource_CONFIRMVendor Advisory
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/86311 vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1035268 vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-4003 Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1326725 Issue Tracking
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-m3x6-9v6h-4g28 Advisory
- https://github.com/apache/struts/commit/4720f46a63caaf9db97ba27dc51ac5ad21e66bdc
- https://github.com/apache/struts/commit/5421930b49822606792f36653b17d3d95ef106f9
- https://github.com/apache/struts/commit/72471d7075681bea52046645ad7aa34e9c53751e
- https://github.com/apache/struts/commit/76f188406eb9f17a06afcb5f49f0c44d749da0d2
- https://github.com/apache/struts/commit/a89bbe22cd2461748d595a89a254de888a415e6c
- https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/WW-4507 x_refsource_CONFIRMVendor Advisory
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-4003
- https://web.archive.org/web/20161119142317/http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/86311
- https://web.archive.org/web/20161221184936/http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1035268
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-4003
Change history (0)
No recorded changes yet.