CVE-2024-24549
Published: 13 March 2024
Summary
CVE-2024-24549 is a high-severity Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) vulnerability in Apache Tomcat. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 1.5% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
CVE-2024-24549 is a denial-of-service vulnerability arising from improper input validation when Apache Tomcat processes HTTP/2 requests. If an incoming request exceeds configured header limits, the server continues to process all headers before resetting the associated stream. The flaw affects Tomcat versions 11.0.0-M1 through 11.0.0-M16, 10.1.0-M1 through 10.1.18, 9.0.0-M1 through 9.0.85, and 8.5.0 through 8.5.98, as well as certain older end-of-life releases.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can send a crafted HTTP/2 request containing an excessive number of headers to trigger the condition. Because the stream is not promptly reset, the server expends resources on the oversized header set, resulting in high availability impact without requiring authentication or user interaction.
Apache Tomcat project advisories and downstream distributions such as Debian and Fedora recommend immediate upgrade to the fixed releases 11.0.0-M17, 10.1.19, 9.0.86, or 8.5.99. The published references contain the corresponding release notes and package announcements that detail the remediation steps.
The EPSS score has remained near 0.64 since disclosure with negligible movement between current and peak values.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-0863
Vulnerability details
Denial of Service due to improper input validation vulnerability for HTTP/2 requests in Apache Tomcat. When processing an HTTP/2 request, if the request exceeded any of the configured limits for headers, the associated HTTP/2 stream was not reset until after…
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all of the headers had been processed.This issue affects Apache Tomcat: from 11.0.0-M1 through 11.0.0-M16, from 10.1.0-M1 through 10.1.18, from 9.0.0-M1 through 9.0.85, from 8.5.0 through 8.5.98. Other, older, EOL versions may also be affected. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 11.0.0-M17, 10.1.19, 9.0.86 or 8.5.99 which fix the issue.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
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.
Security testing and developer training directly verify and enforce proper input validation, reducing exploitability of injection and malformed-data weaknesses.
Security testing and evaluation at multiple SDLC stages directly detects missing or flawed input validation, with the required remediation process ensuring fixes are applied.
Directly implements checks on information inputs to reject invalid data before processing.
Spam protection mechanisms perform filtering and detection on inbound/outbound messages, directly compensating for missing or weak input validation of unsolicited content.