CVE-2016-5388
HIGHEPSS 99th pctlDescription
Apache Tomcat 7.x through 7.0.70 and 8.x through 8.5.4, when the CGI Servlet is enabled, follows RFC 3875 section 4.1.18 and therefore does not protect applications from the presence of untrusted client data in the HTTP_PROXY environment variable, which might allow remote attackers to redirect an application's outbound HTTP traffic to an arbitrary proxy server via a crafted Proxy header in an HTTP request, aka an "httpoxy" issue. NOTE: the vendor states "A mitigation is planned for future releases of Tomcat, tracked as CVE-2016-5388"; in other words, this is not a CVE ID for a vulnerability.
How to fix
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Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Exploit Intelligence
Very high risk: more likely to be exploited than 99% of all known CVEs.
References
Related Vulnerabilities
Other CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all
| CVE | Severity | CVSS | EPSS | Exploited | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2023-27350 | Critical | 9.8 | 100% | KEV + Ransom | Fix |
| CVE-2019-1653 | High | 7.5 | 100% | KEV | - |
| CVE-2023-23752 | Medium | 5.3 | 100% | KEV | Fix |
| CVE-2023-29298 | High | 7.5 | 100% | KEV | - |
| CVE-2023-38205 | High | 7.5 | 100% | KEV | - |
| CVE-2024-27348 | Critical | 9.8 | 99% | KEV | Fix |
Common questions
How do I fix CVE-2016-5388?
Published advisories record a fix for 8 affected products. The "How to fix" section on this page lists the fixed version and source advisory for each one, so apply the entry matching what you actually run.
Is CVE-2016-5388 being actively exploited?
Not that we know of. CVE-2016-5388 is not in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Its EPSS score of 50.9% is the estimated probability that it will be exploited in the next 30 days. That is higher than 99% of all scored CVEs.
How severe is CVE-2016-5388?
CVE-2016-5388 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.1, rated high. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.
What does CVE-2016-5388 affect?
Published advisories record a fix for libservlet3.0-java (Ubuntu), libtomcat7-java (Ubuntu), libtomcat8-java (Ubuntu), tomcat7 (Ubuntu), and 4 more. Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.
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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-06-17.