struts: RCE attack when using an unintentional expression in Freemarker tag instead of string literals
Published Sep 20, 2017
9.8
CRITICALCVSS 3.0
EPSS 87.12%
Description
In Apache Struts 2.0.0 through 2.3.33 and 2.5 through 2.5.10.1, using an unintentional expression in a Freemarker tag instead of string literals can lead to a RCE attack.
Affected products
-
- Version 2.0.0 - 2.3.33StatusaffectedConstraints-
- Version 2.5 - 2.5.10.1StatusaffectedConstraints-
- Version
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
| Vendor | Product | Default status | Versions | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache Software Foundation | Apache Struts | n/a |
|
- 2.0.1
- 2.0.2
- 2.0.3
- 2.0.4
- 2.0.5
- 2.0.6
- 2.0.7
- 2.0.8
- 2.0.9
- 2.0.10
- 2.0.11
- 2.0.11.1
- 2.0.11.2
- 2.0.12
- 2.0.13
- 2.0.14
- 2.1.0
- 2.1.1
- 2.1.2
- 2.1.3
- 2.1.4
- 2.1.5
- 2.1.6
- 2.1.8
- 2.1.8.1
- 2.2.1
- 2.2.1.1
- 2.2.3
- 2.2.3.1
- 2.3.1
- 2.3.1.1
- 2.3.1.2
- 2.3.3
- 2.3.4
- 2.3.4.1
- 2.3.5
- 2.3.6
- 2.3.7
- 2.3.8
- 2.3.9
- 2.3.10
- 2.3.11
- 2.3.12
- 2.3.13
- 2.3.14
- 2.3.14.1
- 2.3.14.2
- 2.3.14.3
- 2.3.15
- 2.3.15.1
- 2.3.15.2
- 2.3.15.3
- 2.3.16
- 2.3.16.1
- 2.3.16.2
- 2.3.16.3
- 2.3.17
- 2.3.19
- 2.3.20
- 2.3.20.1
- 2.3.20.2
- 2.3.21
- 2.3.22
- 2.3.23
- 2.3.24.2
- 2.3.24.3
- 2.3.25
- 2.3.26
- 2.3.27
- 2.3.28
- 2.3.28.1
- 2.3.29
- 2.3.30
- 2.3.31
- 2.3.32
- 2.3.33
- 2.5
- 2.5
- 2.5
- 2.5
- 2.5.1
- 2.5.2
- 2.5.3
- 2.5.4
- 2.5.5
- 2.5.6
- 2.5.7
- 2.5.8
- 2.5.9
- 2.5.10
No data.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
struts
Not affected
Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6
struts
Not affected
Red Hat JBoss Fuse Service Works 6
struts
Not affected
Red Hat JBoss Operations Network 3
struts
Not affected
Red Hat Satellite 5
struts
Not affected
| Product | Package | State | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | struts | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6 | struts | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat JBoss Fuse Service Works 6 | struts | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat JBoss Operations Network 3 | struts | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Satellite 5 | struts | Not affected | n/a |
No package ranges for this CVE.
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:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
1 other source (Red Hat) ▾
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
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
2021–2026- EPSS v1
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Percentile over time
- EPSS v1
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Table of values (20 key points)
Flat stretches are collapsed; showing up to 120 newest points.
| Date | Score | Percentile | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2026 | 87.12% (0.87123) | 99.75th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Sep 22, 2026 | 87.12% (0.87123) | 99.74th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Sep 21, 2026 | 95.48% (0.95484) | 99.87th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Sep 6, 2026 | 87.12% (0.87123) | 99.74th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Sep 5, 2026 | 95.48% (0.95484) | 99.87th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Aug 30, 2026 | 87.12% (0.87123) | 99.73th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Aug 28, 2026 | 95.48% (0.95484) | 99.87th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Aug 24, 2026 | 87.12% (0.87123) | 99.73th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Aug 23, 2026 | 95.48% (0.95484) | 99.87th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Jun 15, 2026 | 88.02% (0.88020) | 99.74th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Mar 17, 2025 | 94.31% (0.94305) | 99.94th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
| Dec 12, 2024 | 97.30% (0.97300) | 99.90th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Apr 10, 2024 | 97.30% (0.97300) | 99.86th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 7, 2023 | 97.36% (0.97358) | 99.78th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 6, 2023 | 58.53% (0.58526) | 98.88th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 4, 2022 | 58.53% (0.58526) | 98.56th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 3, 2022 | 14.56% (0.14565) | 89.71th | v1 |
| Jan 6, 2022 | 14.56% (0.14565) | 89.59th | v1 |
| Sep 1, 2021 | 14.56% (0.14565) | 97.02th | v1 |
| Apr 14, 2021 | 14.56% (0.14565) | 0.00th | v1 |
References (13)
- http://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/alert/ARUBA-PSA-2017-003.txt x_refsource_CONFIRMMitigationThird Party Advisory
- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/alert-cve-2017-9805-3889403.html x_refsource_CONFIRMPatchThird Party Advisory
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/100829 vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-12611 Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1489478 Issue Tracking
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8fx9-5hx8-crhm Advisory
- https://github.com/apache/struts/commit/2306f5f7fad7f0157f216f34331238feb0539fa
- https://github.com/apache/struts/commit/637ad1c3707266c33daabb18d7754e795e6681f
- https://kb.netapp.com/support/s/article/ka51A000000CgttQAC/NTAP-20170911-0001 x_refsource_CONFIRMPatchThird Party Advisory
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-12611
- https://struts.apache.org/docs/s2-053.html x_refsource_CONFIRMExploitVendor Advisory
- https://web.archive.org/web/20170923161654/http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/100829
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-12611
Change history (0)
No recorded changes yet.