The Grails Resource Plugin often has to exchange URIs for resources with other internal components.
The Grails Resource Plugin often has to exchange URIs for resources with other internal components. Those other components will decode any URI passed to them. To protect against directory traversal the Grails Resource Plugin did the following: normalized the URI, checked the normalized URI did not step outside the appropriate root directory (e.g. the web application root), decoded the URI and checked that this did not introduce additional /../ (and similar) sequences. A bug was introduced where the Grails Resource Plugin before 1.2.13 returned the decoded version of the URI rather than the normalized version of the URI after the directory traversal check. This exposed a double decoding vulnerability. To address this issue, the Grails Resource Plugin now repeatedly decodes the URI up to three times or until decoding no longer changes the URI. If the decode limit of 3 is exceeded the URI is rejected. A side-effect of this is that the Grails Resource Plugin is unable to serve a resource that includes a '%' character in the full path to the resource. Not all environments are vulnerable because of the differences in URL resolving in different servlet containers. Applications deployed to Tomcat 8 and Jetty 9 were found not not be vulnerable, however applications deployed to JBoss EAP 6.3 / JBoss AS 7.4 and JBoss AS 7.1 were found to be vulnerable (other JBoss versions weren't tested). In certain cases JBoss returns JBoss specific vfs protocol urls from URL resolution methods (ClassLoader.getResources). The JBoss vfs URL protocol supports resolving any file on the filesystem. This made the directory traversal possible. There may be other containers, in addition to JBoss, on which this vulnerability is exposed.
- Published
- Mar 19, 2018
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 1.7% · 76th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-22
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Report tools
Action score
31
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 1 / 30 · 1.7%
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for the hundreds of thousands of vulnerabilities in the database; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpAffected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| grails | resources | cpe:2.3:a:grails:resources |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- grails resources1.2.0 and later · up to 1.2.12 inclusive
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (dell). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
Dell EMC Grails by Pivotal
- Resources plugin versions 1.2.0 - 1.2.12. Earlier versions may also be affected but were not assessedaffected
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
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Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
- No account or password is required.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- high · data can be read
- Integrity
- none
- Availability
- none
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- High
- Integrity impact
- None
- Availability impact
- None
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')CVSS vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
nvd-primary
Root cause
A user-supplied file name is joined with the allowed directory, but the result is never checked to confirm it is still inside that directory.
The bug in code
The whole CWE-22 classA representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.
Vulnerable
const file = path.join(ROOT, req.query.name);res.sendFile(file);Fixed
const file = path.resolve(ROOT, req.query.name);if (!file.startsWith(ROOT + path.sep)) { return res.sendStatus(400);}res.sendFile(file);Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Attack patterns (CAPEC)
- Path TraversalCAPEC-126likelihood: High · Very High
- Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation LogicCAPEC-64likelihood: High · High
- Manipulating Web Input to File System CallsCAPEC-76likelihood: High · Very High
- Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate EncodingCAPEC-78likelihood: High · High
- Using Slashes in Alternate EncodingCAPEC-79likelihood: High · High
ATT&CK techniques
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Change log
No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.
References
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.