An invalid servlet name can prevent legitimate access to the intended Servlet.
A missing or duplicate servlet name in web.xml
is an error. Every Servlet should have a unique name (servlet-name
) and a corresponding mapping (servlet-mapping
).
Example 1: The following entry from web.xml
shows several erroneous servlet definitions.
<!-- No <servlet-name> specified: -->
<servlet>
<servlet-class>com.class.MyServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<!-- Empty <servlet-name> node: -->
<servlet>
<servlet-name/>
<servlet-class>com.class.MyServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<!-- Duplicate <servlet-name> nodes: -->
<servlet>
<servlet-name>MyServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-name>Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.class.MyServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
[1] Standards Mapping - OWASP Top 10 2004 - (OWASP 2004) A9 Application Denial of Service
[2] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 3 - (STIG 3) APP6080 CAT II
[3] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration - (CWE) CWE ID 730
[4] Sun Microsystems, Inc. Java Servlet Specification 2.4
[5] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 1.1 - (PCI 1.1) Requirement 6.5.9