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TomcatWeb server / proxy · Apache

CVE-2001-0917

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2001-11-22
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Jakarta Tomcat 4.0.1 allows remote attackers to reveal physical path information by requesting a long URL with a .JSP extension.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Jakarta Tomcat 4.0.1 contains an information disclosure vulnerability where requesting a long URL with a .JSP extension causes the server to reveal the physical path of the web application, potentially exposing internal directory structures to remote attackers.

MitigationUpgrade to a patched version of Tomcat 4.x or later, or implement custom error pages that suppress detailed path information in HTTP responses.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
TomcatWeb server / proxy
Affected:= 4.0.1

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
None
Availability
None

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Tomcat version
    Check the server's Tomcat version by examining the release notes, server banner, or the catalina.jar manifest file in the Tomcat installation directory
    Affected if The version is exactly 4.0.1
  2. Verify JSP servlet is accessible
    Confirm the JSP servlet is enabled by attempting to access any valid .JSP page on the server
    Affected if JSP pages are served by the server
  3. Test for physical path disclosure
    Send an HTTP request to the server with an excessively long URL path ending in .JSP (for example: /[repeated characters].jsp) and observe if the error response or any response contains the server's physical directory path
    Affected if The server's response includes the absolute filesystem path to the web application directory

The server is affected if it is running Tomcat version 4.0.1 and responds with physical path information when a long .JSP URL is requested.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade to a patched version of Tomcat 4.x or later, or implement custom error pages that suppress detailed path information in HTTP responses.

Fix this in Tomcat Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2001-0917 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data