Threats / Apache / CVE-2016-8735
CVE-2016-8735
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
Apache Tomcat vulnerability
Apache Tomcat remote code execution vulnerability in JmxRemoteLifecycleListener allows unauthenticated attackers with network access to JMX ports to execute arbitrary code due to inconsistent credential handling.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An attacker with network access to exposed JMX ports can exploit weak credential validation in the JmxRemoteLifecycleListener to achieve remote code execution on affected Tomcat instances, potentially compromising the entire application server and hosted applications.
CISA KEV Yes · 2023-05-124EPSS 0.90338 (verify live)5CVSS 9.8 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
2 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-05-12).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.90338 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Apache, Tomcat. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-284 Improper Access Control — weakness family: Authorization / access control.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 2227 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I identify a Tomcat instance with JmxRemoteLifecycleListener enabled and JMX ports exposed to my network.
Business
Operational visibility is lost; the organization cannot monitor or manage the compromised application server.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I connect to the JMX port and exploit the credential validation flaw to bypass authentication.
Business
Security controls fail; unauthorized access to management interfaces goes undetected.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I execute arbitrary code through the JMX interface with the privileges of the Tomcat process.
Business
The application server is fully compromised; all hosted applications and data are at risk of theft or destruction.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05
Coverage & confidence
— what we know, and what we don’tEstablished (cited)
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
Disclosure & credit2
Catalogued by apacheCNA
Credited with finding itNo finder is named in the public CVE record or the scanned vendor advisory — attribution scoped to the sources checked.
Found an error? Propose a correction.
A correction is a cited counter-claim — it must cite a source,
gets reviewed by a second human, and is never auto-applied. See the
correction convention and our identity
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