Man-in-the-middle attack in Apache Axis
Apache Axis 1.4 and earlier, as used in PayPal Payments Pro, PayPal Mass Pay, PayPal Transactional Information SOAP, the Java Message Service implementation in Apache ActiveMQ, and other products, does not verify that the server hostname matches a domain name in the subject's Common Name (CN) or subjectAltName field of the X.509 certificate, which allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof SSL servers via an arbitrary valid certificate.
Affected software
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| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Java / Kotlin (Maven) | axis:axis | <= 1.4 | no fix |
| Java / Kotlin (Maven) | org.apache.axis:axis | <= 1.4 | no fix |
References
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-5784
- https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/79829
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/44d4e88a5fa8ae60deb752029afe9054da87c5f859caf296fcf585e5@%3Cjava-dev.axis.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/5e6c92145deddcecf70c3604041dcbd615efa2d37632fc2b9c367780@%3Cjava-dev.axis.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/8aa25c99eeb0693fc229ec87d1423b5ed5d58558618706d8aba1d832@%3Cjava-dev.axis.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/a308887782e05da7cf692e4851ae2bd429a038570cbf594e6631cc8d@%3Cjava-dev.axis.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/de2af12dcaba653d02b03235327ca4aa930401813a3cced8e151d29c@%3Cjava-dev.axis.apache.org%3E
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-06/msg00007.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-06/msg00022.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0269.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0683.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-0037.html
- http://secunia.com/advisories/51219
- http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/shmat_ccs12.pdf
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/56408
- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-20- Platform
- Java / Kotlin (Maven)
- Package
axis:axis, org.apache.axis:axis- Disclosed
- 07.10.2020
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 12:21
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-55w9-c3g2-4rrh - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: org.apache.axis:axis
All published vulnerabilities of this package (Java / Kotlin (Maven)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
- Total entries
- 7
- First → latest
- 10.2018 01.2024
- Without a fix
- 6
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- Critical 1
- High 2
- Medium 4
Disclosures per year
- 2018: 2
- 2019: 1
- 2020: 1
- 2021: 0
- 2022: 1
- 2023: 1
- 2024: 1
- 2025: 0
- 2026: 0
-
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