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Jboss Enterprise Application PlatformApplication · Redhat

CVE-2011-4085

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-11-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.2.0 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
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
The servlets invoked by httpha-invoker in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform before 5.1.2, SOA Platform before 5.2.0, BRMS Platform before 5.3.0, and Portal Platform before 4.3 CP07 perform access control only for the GET and POST methods, which allow remote attackers to bypass authentication by sending a request with a different method. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of a CVE-2010-0738 regression.

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 · high confidence

The httpha-invoker servlets in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (versions before 5.1.2), SOA Platform (before 5.2.0), BRMS Platform (before 5.3.0), and Portal Platform (before 4.3 CP07) perform access control checks only for GET and POST HTTP methods. This allows remote attackers to bypass authentication by sending requests using other HTTP methods (such as HEAD, PUT, DELETE, etc.). This vulnerability is a regression of CVE-2010-0738.

MitigationUpgrade to JBoss versions 5.1.2, 5.2.0, 5.3.0, or 4.3 CP07 and later, or disable the httpha-invoker servlet if not required in production environments.

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
Jboss Enterprise Application PlatformApplication
Affected:<= 5.1.1= 4.2.0= 4.3.0= 5.0.0= 5.0.1= 5.1.0
Jboss Enterprise Soa PlatformApplication
Affected:<= 5.1.1= 4.2.0= 4.3.0= 5.0.0= 5.0.1= 5.0.2= 5.1.0
Jboss Enterprise Brms PlatformApplication
Affected:<= 5.2.0
Jboss Enterprise Portal PlatformApplication
Affected:<= 4.3.0

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
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

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

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 JBoss platform and version
    Check the installed JBoss version by examining the jar files in the lib directory or the version.txt file. For EAP, check $JBOSS_HOME/lib/jboss-main.jar or the version info in the manifest. For SOA/BRMS/Portal, locate the specific platform version file.
    Affected if The installed version falls within: JBoss EAP <= 5.1.1, 4.2.0, 4.3.0, 5.0.0-5.1.0; JBoss SOA <= 5.1.1, 4.2.0, 4.3.0, 5.0.0-5.1.0; JBoss BRMS <= 5.2.0; JBoss Portal <= 4.3.0
  2. Locate httpha-invoker servlet deployment
    Search for the httpha-invoker.war or jboss-ha-server-invoker.sar in the $JBOSS_HOME/server/<config>/deploy/ directory. Also check for the invoker-servlet.xml or related invoker servlet configuration files.
    Affected if The httpha-invoker servlet is deployed and accessible on the server
  3. Verify HTTP method handling in security configuration
    Examine the web.xml descriptor in the httpha-invoker war file (WEB-INF/web.xml) or the JBoss web.xml for security constraint definitions. Look for <security-constraint> and <http-method> elements that define which methods are restricted.
    Affected if Security constraints only list GET and POST methods, or omit explicit method restrictions, meaning other methods like HEAD, PUT, DELETE may bypass authentication
  4. Test for authentication bypass with alternate HTTP methods
    Send an authenticated request to the httpha-invoker endpoint using a non-GET/POST method (e.g., HEAD, OPTIONS, or PUT). Compare the response to a request without authentication credentials. If both return similar successful responses, the vulnerability is present.
    Affected if Non-GET/POST requests without authentication succeed where GET/POST requests would require authentication

You are affected if you run any of the listed JBoss platform versions AND have the httpha-invoker servlet deployed, with authentication bypass possible for HTTP methods other than GET and POST.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.2.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to JBoss versions 5.1.2, 5.2.0, 5.3.0, or 4.3 CP07 and later, or disable the httpha-invoker servlet if not required in production environments.

Fix this in Jboss Enterprise Application Platform Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2011-4085 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