CVE-2015-5173
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 · uneditedCloud Foundry Runtime cf-release before 216, UAA before 2.5.2, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF) Elastic Runtime before 1.7.0 allow attackers to have unspecified impact via vectors involving emails with password recovery links, aka "Cross Domain Referer Leakage."
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 confidenceCross-Domain Referer Leakage in Cloud Foundry's password recovery flow. When users click password reset links in emails, the landing page may leak the reset token via the HTTP Referer header to third-party domains if external resources (images, scripts) are loaded, potentially enabling account takeover.
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< 216< 1.7.0< 2.5.2CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
-
Identify the Cloud Foundry component versionsQuery the deployed versions of cf-release, UAA, or Elastic Runtime using 'cf version', 'uaac version', or check the deployment manifestAffected if The installed version is cf-release < 216, UAA < 2.5.2, or Elastic Runtime < 1.7.0
-
Verify the password reset endpoint is accessibleAccess the password reset URL pattern (typically /forgot_password or /password_resets) in your Cloud Foundry UAA login applicationAffected if The password reset flow exists and is reachable without authentication
-
Inspect Referrer-Policy headers on password reset pagesUse a browser dev tools or curl -I to fetch the password reset page and examine HTTP response headers for Referrer-Policy or similar referrer controlsAffected if No Referrer-Policy header is set, or the policy is unsafe (e.g., 'no-referrer-when-downgrade' or missing entirely)
-
Check for external resource loading in password reset page sourceView the HTML source of the password reset landing page and look for <script>, <img>, <link>, or <iframe> tags pointing to third-party domainsAffected if External third-party resources (CDNs, analytics, fonts from non-internal domains) are loaded on the password reset page
A user is affected if their Cloud Foundry deployment version is below the fixed releases AND the password reset page loads external resources without proper Referrer-Policy headers, allowing reset tokens to leak via the Referer header.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 data1.7.02.5.2216
Upgrade to cf-release 216+, UAA 2.5.2+, or PCF Elastic Runtime 1.7.0+. Alternatively, ensure password reset pages do not load third-party resources and implement strict Referrer-Policy headers.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-5173 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-5173 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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.
- 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