CVE-2024-38808
Description
A flaw was found in the Spring framework package. A maliciously crafted Spring Expression Language (SePL) may trigger uncontrolled CPU usage, leading to a denial of service in the application consuming it. To be considered vulnerable, one application has to evaluate user-supplied SpEL expressions.
Statement
Moderate impact: CVE-2024-38808 affects certain Red Hat products containing the spring-expression component when an application evaluates user-supplied Spring Expression Language (SpEL) expressions. A maliciously crafted expression can cause uncontrolled CPU usage and denial of service. Red Hat's CVSS is 5.9 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H), while CVE.org rates it 4.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L); the difference reflects Red Hat's assessment of high attack complexity and no required user interaction versus CVE.org's low complexity, required user interaction, and lower availability impact. The current affects data marks 18 product streams affected, 2 new, and 20 not affected. Affected scope includes Red Hat JBoss Fuse, OpenShift Developer Tools & Services, OpenShift Container Platform, Red Hat Build of Quarkus, Red Hat build of Apache Camel, Red Hat build of OptaPlanner, Red Hat Process Automation Manager, and cloud.redhat.com; Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization has a new entry. Red Hat AMQ, Enterprise Application Platform, JBoss Data Grid, Red Hat Build of Keycloak, Red Hat Single Sign-On, and some Red Hat build of Apache Camel streams are marked not affected; where recorded, the reason is that the vulnerable code is not present. Affected streams marked DELEGATED are handled through delegated product workflows; entries with delegated resolution AFFECTED remain subject to remediation through that workflow, while other delegated entries are explicitly marked DEFER, NOTAFFECTED, or WONTFIX. The cloud.redhat.com stream marked DEFER has no deferral reason recorded; residual risk remains denial of service wherever user-supplied SpEL is evaluated.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.9 | N/A | 4.3 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
If an attacker can trigger the allocation of the limited resources, but the number or size of the resources is not controlled, then the most common result is denial of service. This would prevent valid users from accessing the product, and it could potentially have an impact on the surrounding environment, i.e., the product may slow down, crash due to unhandled errors, or lock out legitimate users. For example, a memory exhaustion attack against an application could slow down the application as well as its host operating system.
Access Control,Other
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Other
In some cases it may be possible to force the product to "fail open" in the event of resource exhaustion. The state of the product -- and possibly the security functionality - may then be compromised.
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