Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-26048

DoS in Eclipse Jetty ≤ 9.4.51

Published
18 April 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
EPSS Score 0.033 87th percentile
Risk Priority 63 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-26048 is a medium-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Eclipse Jetty. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Network Denial of Service (T1498); ranked in the top 13% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

Jetty is a Java-based web server and servlet engine affected by CVE-2023-26048. Servlets using multipart support (for example those annotated with @MultipartConfig) that invoke HttpServletRequest.getParameter() or HttpServletRequest.getParts() can trigger an OutOfMemoryError when a client supplies a multipart request containing a part that specifies a name but no filename and carries arbitrarily large content. The condition occurs even when the default fileSizeThreshold=0 setting is in place, which is intended to stream part data to disk rather than retain it in memory.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can send a single crafted multipart request to exhaust heap memory on the target server, producing an OutOfMemoryError that degrades or interrupts service. Although the JVM may eventually recover, the interruption window can be significant, resulting in a low-impact denial-of-service condition as reflected by the CVSS 5.3 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L) and the associated CWE-400/CWE-770 classifications.

The Eclipse Jetty project has released fixes in versions 9.4.51, 10.0.14, and 11.0.14. Administrators unable to upgrade immediately can mitigate the issue by explicitly configuring the multipart maxRequestSize parameter to a non-negative value, thereby capping the total size of an incoming multipart request even though the content is still buffered in memory. The official security advisory and linked pull requests document these remediation steps.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Jetty is a java based web server and servlet engine. In affected versions servlets with multipart support (e.g. annotated with `@MultipartConfig`) that call `HttpServletRequest.getParameter()` or `HttpServletRequest.getParts()` may cause `OutOfMemoryError` when the client sends a multipart request with a part that…

more

has a name but no filename and very large content. This happens even with the default settings of `fileSizeThreshold=0` which should stream the whole part content to disk. An attacker client may send a large multipart request and cause the server to throw `OutOfMemoryError`. However, the server may be able to recover after the `OutOfMemoryError` and continue its service -- although it may take some time. This issue has been patched in versions 9.4.51, 10.0.14, and 11.0.14. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade may set the multipart parameter `maxRequestSize` which must be set to a non-negative value, so the whole multipart content is limited (although still read into memory).

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1498 Network Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Network Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of targeted resources to users.
T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
T1499.001 OS Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may launch a denial of service (DoS) attack targeting an endpoint's operating system (OS).
T1499.003 Application Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may target resource intensive features of applications to cause a denial of service (DoS), denying availability to those applications.
T1498.001 Direct Network Flood Impact
Adversaries may attempt to cause a denial of service (DoS) by directly sending a high-volume of network traffic to a target.
T1498.002 Reflection Amplification Impact
Adversaries may attempt to cause a denial of service (DoS) by reflecting a high-volume of network traffic to a target.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-6762Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2024-8184Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2025-1948Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2025-5115Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2024-7708Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2026-1605Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2024-13009Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2026-10051Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2026-6790Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2026-10050Same product: Eclipse Jetty

Affected Assets

eclipse
jetty
≤ 9.4.51 · 10.0.0 — 10.0.14 · 11.0.0 — 11.0.14

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.4

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Updated contingency plans include current procedures to detect, contain, and recover from resource exhaustion, limiting an attacker's ability to sustain impact from uncontrolled consumption.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Planning and coordination of security activities (scans, tests, maintenance) directly imposes scheduling and throttling that prevents those activities from producing uncontrolled resource consumption.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Performance metrics and monitoring inherently track resource consumption patterns, making uncontrolled consumption easier to detect and mitigate.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Terminating idle connections bounds resource consumption that would otherwise allow uncontrolled accumulation of open sessions.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.IR-04 mostly match
prevents

Explicitly requires monitoring and maintaining resource capacity, directly addressing uncontrolled consumption to preserve availability.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Continuous monitoring of computing resources can detect resource exhaustion but does not itself enforce allocation limits.

PR.IR-03 partial match
prevents

Resilience mechanisms such as avoiding single points of failure indirectly reduce impact of resource exhaustion.

PR.PS-01 partial match
prevents

Hardened configuration baselines can include resource quotas and limits that constrain consumption.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Resource-utilization monitoring and alerting on bottlenecks or overloads limits the impact of denial-of-service or resource-exhaustion attacks.

prevents

By continuously monitoring utilization, stress-testing peak loads, and maintaining documented plans to scale or throttle resources, the control directly limits an attacker’s ability to drive a system into uncontrolled resource exhaustion.

finds

Pre-agreed severity-based prioritization and resource allocation during incident triage reduce the likelihood that an attacker-induced resource exhaustion will overwhelm the organization before corrective action is taken.

mitigates

Business-continuity plans that include resource-management controls reduce the likelihood that an attacker can trigger uncontrolled resource consumption by forcing the system into a degraded or fallback state.

mitigates

Defining RTOs and capacity requirements for ICT services during business-impact analysis forces organizations to provision sufficient resources and throttling mechanisms, reducing the likelihood that an attacker can induce denial-of-service through uncontrolled resource consumption.

finds

Early notification of anomalous resource consumption or system malfunctions enables throttling or isolation before availability is lost.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (2 rules)
  • V-248552 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
  • V-248553 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
Oracle Linux 9 (2 rules)
  • V-271710 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
  • V-271709 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230244 RHEL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770

References