Medium
Security advisory
In Apache Struts 2.5 through 2.5.5, if an application allows entering a URL in a form field and the built-in URLValidator is used, it is possible to prepare a special URL which will be used to overload server process when performing validation of the URL.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2016-8738
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 04:31 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
In Apache Struts 2.5 through 2.5.5, if an application allows entering a URL in a form field and the built-in URLValidator is used, it is possible to prepare a special URL which will be used to overload server process when performing validation of the URL.
osv:CVE-2016-8738
Complete source record
{
"id": "ba618510b213a9e7249730ca025cce0360dddfe16185b1312ee89251f4104b89",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-8738",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2016-8738",
"summary": "In Apache Struts 2.5 through 2.5.5, if an application allows entering a URL in a form field and the built-in URLValidator is used, it is possible to prepare a special URL which will be used to overload server process when performing validation of the URL.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2016-8738",
"products": [],
"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2016-8738",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2016-8738",
"GHSA-86vq-8qhc-5rqw"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/apache/struts",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "4bee55fee30086c786d09503125a2b1c2ae8dcfa"
},
{
"last_affected": "f2348e53cbdf8ad7d9c28c66dc6fefe2c5718636"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.5"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.5.1"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.5.2"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.2"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.5.3"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.3"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.5.4"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.4"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.5.5"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.5"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
"2.5",
"2.5.1",
"2.5.2",
"2.5.3",
"2.5.4",
"2.5.5"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2016-8738.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-24T10:30:19.539066577Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20180629-0003/",
"https://struts.apache.org/docs/s2-044.html"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"cpes": [
"cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:a:apache:struts:2.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "apache:struts",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.5"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5"
},
{
"introduced": "2.5.1"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.1"
},
{
"introduced": "2.5.2"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.2"
},
{
"introduced": "2.5.3"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.3"
},
{
"introduced": "2.5.4"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.4"
},
{
"introduced": "2.5.5"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.5.5"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
]
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2016-8738",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 430038,
"published_at": "2017-09-20T17:29:00.337+00:00"
}