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CVE-2016-1240

52
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-1240 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability affecting Apache Tomcat packages on Debian and Ubuntu distributions. It allows a local user with access to the tomcat account to gain root privileges through a symlink attack on the Catalina log file. This vulnerability has a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 (High), indicating a low attack complexity and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Exploit code is publicly available, including a Metasploit module and an ExploitDB entry, and it has garnered significant community discussion, though it is not listed on CISA's KEV catalog.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
6.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

7.8HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
9.78%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
95.0%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
Metasploit: Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu Log Init Privilege Escalation · Sep 30, 2016
ExploitDB: EDB-40450 · Oct 3, 2016
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0978 is in the 99th percentile among its peer group of 17,061 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.2 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (23)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6Fixed in: hibernate4-eap6-0:4.2.23-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6Fixed in: jbcs-httpd24-0:1-3.jbcs.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6Fixed in: jbcs-httpd24-apache-commons-daemon-0:1.0.15-1.redhat_2.1.jbcs.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6Fixed in: jbcs-httpd24-apache-commons-daemon-jsvc-1:1.0.15-17.redhat_2.jbcs.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6Fixed in: mod_cluster-0:1.3.5-2.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6Fixed in: tomcat7-0:7.0.70-16.ep7.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6Fixed in: tomcat8-0:8.0.36-17.ep7.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6Fixed in: tomcat-native-0:1.2.8-9.redhat_9.ep7.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 6Fixed in: tomcat-vault-0:1.0.8-9.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7Fixed in: hibernate4-eap6-0:4.2.23-1.Final_redhat_1.1.ep6.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7Fixed in: jbcs-httpd24-0:1-3.jbcs.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7Fixed in: jbcs-httpd24-apache-commons-daemon-0:1.0.15-1.redhat_2.1.jbcs.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7Fixed in: jbcs-httpd24-apache-commons-daemon-jsvc-1:1.0.15-17.redhat_2.jbcs.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7Fixed in: mod_cluster-0:1.3.5-2.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7Fixed in: tomcat7-0:7.0.70-16.ep7.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7Fixed in: tomcat8-0:8.0.36-17.ep7.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7Fixed in: tomcat-native-0:1.2.8-9.redhat_9.ep7.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3 for RHEL 7Fixed in: tomcat-vault-0:1.0.8-9.Final_redhat_2.1.ep7.el7
View patch
redhatvendor investigatingvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 3Fixed in: tomcat8
redhatno patchvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 3Fixed in: tomcat7
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 2Fixed in: tomcat6
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 2Fixed in: tomcat7

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2016-1240Important

tomcat: unsafe chown of catalina.log in tomcat init script allows privilege escalation

Sep 15, 2016

References

legalhackers.com / advisories/Tomcat-DebPkgs-Root-Privilege-Escalation-Exploit-CVE-2016-1240.html
packetstormsecurity.com / files/170857/Apache-Tomcat-On-Ubuntu-Log-Init-Privilege-Escalation.html
rhn.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017-0457.html
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017:0455
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017:0456
security.gentoo.org / glsa/201705-09
security.netapp.com / advisory/ntap-20180731-0002
exploit-db.com / exploits/40450
debian.org / security/2016/dsa-3669
Third Party Advisory
debian.org / security/2016/dsa-3670
Third Party Advisory
securityfocus.com / archive/1/539519/100/0/threaded
securityfocus.com / bid/93263
securitytracker.com / id/1036845
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
ubuntu.com / usn/USN-3081-1
Third Party Advisory