CVE-2024-23672
Description
A denial of service (DoS) vulnerability present in the Apache Tomcat package arises from an incomplete cleanup process. Specifically, WebSocket clients can perpetuate WebSocket connections without proper termination, thereby causing a sustained drain on system resources. This vulnerability facilitates the exploitation of Apache Tomcat servers, leading to a scenario where excessive resource consumption occurs due to the prolonged existence of these open WebSocket connections. As a consequence, the server's performance may degrade significantly, resulting in potential service disruption or unresponsiveness.
Statement
This Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability within the Apache Tomcat package represents an Important severity issue due to its potential to significantly impact system availability and performance. By allowing WebSocket clients to maintain open connections without proper cleanup, the vulnerability facilitates the sustained consumption of server resources. This exploitation results in increased CPU, memory, and network utilization, ultimately leading to server degradation or unresponsiveness. The inability to terminate these lingering connections efficiently exacerbates the severity of the issue, as it enables attackers to exploit limited resources over an extended period, amplifying the impact of the attack.
Red Hat Certificate System 10.0 as well as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8's Identity Management, are using a vulnerable version of Tomcat, bundled into the pki-servlet-engine component. However, there are no entry point for WebSockets, and thus it is not possible to trigger the flaw in a supported setup.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't 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 | 7.5 | N/A | 6.3 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | Low |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | Low |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | Low |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Other,Confidentiality,Integrity
Technical Impact: Other; Read Application Data; Modify Application Data; DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
It is possible to overflow the number of temporary files because directories typically have limits on the number of files allowed. This could create a denial of service problem.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what something means? Check out our Security Glossary.
Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.
