CVE-2019-0232

When running on Windows with enableCmdLineArguments enabled, the CGI Servlet in Apache Tomcat 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.17, 8.5.0 to 8.5.39 and…

8.1HighCVSS base score
99.9%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.1% of all CVEs
NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
3Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB

Description

When running on Windows with enableCmdLineArguments enabled, the CGI Servlet in Apache Tomcat 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.17, 8.5.0 to 8.5.39 and 7.0.0 to 7.0.93 is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution due to a bug in the way the JRE passes command line arguments to Windows. The CGI Servlet is disabled by default. The CGI option enableCmdLineArguments is disable by default in Tomcat 9.0.x (and will be disabled by default in all versions in response to this vulnerability). For a detailed explanation of the JRE behaviour, see Markus Wulftange's blog (https://codewhitesec.blogspot.com/2016/02/java-and-command-line-injections-in-windows.html) and this archived MSDN blog (https://web.archive.org/web/20161228144344/https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/twistylittlepassagesallalike/2011/04/23/everyone-quotes-command-line-arguments-the-wrong-way/).

Public exploit

An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module, a Nuclei template and an Exploit-DB entry for it.

Show the exploits3

Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from

Timeline

2018
14 Nov 2018
14 Nov 2018
ID reserved
By apache
2019
15 Apr 20195 months later
15 Apr 2019· 5 months later
Published
2026
2 Nov 20268 years later
2 Nov 2026· 8 years later
Record updated

Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.

Scores

CVSS scores of CVE-2019-0232, by who scored it
Scored by	CVSS	Score	Vector
NVDNVD · Modified	3.0	High8.1	CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days): 99.9% · top 0.1% of all CVEs (9 Nov 2026)
CISA SSVC: Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.1.

Affected products

Apache · Tomcat
- affected 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.17
- affected 8.5.0 to 8.5.39
- affected 7.0.0 to 7.0.93

Affected packages

From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.

Mavenorg.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-coreGHSA-8vmx-qmch-mpqg (opens in a new tab)

References

[tomcat-users] 20190410 [SECURITY] CVE-2019-0232 Apache Tomcat Remote Code Execution on Windows (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[tomcat-dev] 20190415 svn commit: r1857582 [18/22] - in /tomcat/site/trunk: docs/ xdocs/stylesheets/ (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[ofbiz-commits] 20190415 svn commit: r1857587 - in /ofbiz: ofbiz-framework/branches/release18.12/build.gradle ofbiz-plugins/branches/release18.12/example/build.gradle (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[tomcat-dev] 20190415 svn commit: r1857582 [17/22] - in /tomcat/site/trunk: docs/ xdocs/stylesheets/ (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[ofbiz-commits] 20190415 svn commit: r1857586 - in /ofbiz: ofbiz-framework/trunk/build.gradle ofbiz-plugins/trunk/example/build.gradle (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[tomcat-dev] 20190415 svn commit: r1857582 [19/22] - in /tomcat/site/trunk: docs/ xdocs/stylesheets/ (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[ofbiz-commits] 20190415 svn commit: r1857588 - in /ofbiz: ofbiz-framework/branches/release17.12/build.gradle ofbiz-plugins/branches/release17.12/example/build.gradle (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[ofbiz-notifications] 20190415 [jira] [Commented] (OFBIZ-10920) Update Tomcat to 9.0.18 due to CVE-2019-0232 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[ofbiz-notifications] 20190415 [jira] [Closed] (OFBIZ-10920) Update Tomcat to 9.0.18 due to CVE-2019-0232 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
107906 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
[tomcat-dev] 20190421 svn commit: r1857901 - in /tomcat/site/trunk: docs/security-7.html docs/security-8.html docs/security-9.html xdocs/security-7.xml xdocs/security-8.xml xdocs/security-9.xml (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
20190504 RCE in CGI Servlet - Apache Tomcat on Windows - CVE-2019-0232 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_FULLDISCx_transferred
RHSA-2019:1712 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHATx_transferred
[announce] 20200131 Apache Software Foundation Security Report: 2019 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[tomcat-dev] 20200203 svn commit: r1873527 [24/30] - /tomcat/site/trunk/docs/ (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[tomcat-dev] 20200203 svn commit: r1873527 [25/30] - /tomcat/site/trunk/docs/ (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[tomcat-dev] 20200213 svn commit: r1873980 [27/34] - /tomcat/site/trunk/docs/ (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[tomcat-dev] 20200213 svn commit: r1873980 [28/34] - /tomcat/site/trunk/docs/ (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
[tomcat-dev] 20200213 svn commit: r1873980 [29/34] - /tomcat/site/trunk/docs/ (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2020.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpujul2019-5072835.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpuoct2019-5072832.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2020.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuApr2021.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
https://codewhitesec.blogspot.com/2016/02/java-and-command-line-injections-in-windows.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
https://web.archive.org/web/20161228144344/https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/twistylittlepassagesallalike/2011/04/23/everyone-quotes-command-line-arguments-the-wrong-way/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
https://www.synology.com/security/advisory/Synology_SA_19_17 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190419-0001/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
https://www.broadcom.com/support/fibre-channel-networking/security-advisories/brocade-security-advisory-2019-784 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
https://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/uncovering-cve-2019-0232-a-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-apache-tomcat/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
https://wwws.nightwatchcybersecurity.com/2019/04/30/remote-code-execution-rce-in-cgi-servlet-apache-tomcat-on-windows-cve-2019-0232/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/153506/Apache-Tomcat-CGIServlet-enableCmdLineArguments-Remote-Code-Execution.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

Badge for a README or a ticket

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Record last updated 2 Nov 2026, 17:30 UTC.