Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-39304 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Apache Activemq. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Network Denial of Service (T1498); ranked in the top 44% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-10 (Concurrent Session Control) and SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2026-39304 is a denial-of-service vulnerability caused by an out-of-memory condition in the Apache ActiveMQ Client, Apache ActiveMQ Broker, and Apache ActiveMQ. The issue stems from the NIO SSL transports failing to properly handle TLSv1.3 handshake KeyUpdates initiated by clients, allowing rapid triggering of updates that exhaust the broker's memory in the SSL engine. It affects Apache ActiveMQ Client versions before 5.19.4 and from 6.0.0 before 6.2.4, as well as the Broker and ActiveMQ in the same version ranges. Older TLS versions prior to 1.3 are also mishandled but do not lead to out-of-memory conditions, though these issues are addressed in the fix.
A remote, unauthenticated attacker with network access can exploit this vulnerability by connecting to an affected ActiveMQ instance over TLSv1.3 and repeatedly sending KeyUpdate messages during the handshake. This forces the broker to allocate excessive memory in its SSL engine, resulting in memory exhaustion and denial of service. The CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) reflects high availability impact with low attack complexity and no privileges required.
The Apache security advisory and related announcements recommend upgrading to Apache ActiveMQ versions 5.19.5 or 6.2.4, which resolve the improper handling of TLSv1.3 KeyUpdates and fixes for pre-TLSv1.3 behaviors. Details are available in the official announcement at https://activemq.apache.org/security-advisories.data/CVE-2026-39304-announcement.txt and the oss-security mailing list at http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/04/09/17.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-21362
Vulnerability Data
Denial of Service via Out of Memory vulnerability in Apache ActiveMQ Client, Apache ActiveMQ Broker, Apache ActiveMQ. ActiveMQ NIO SSL transports do not correctly handle TLSv1.3 handshake KeyUpdates triggered by clients. This makes it possible for a client to rapidly…
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trigger updates which causes the broker to exhaust all its memory in the SSL engine leading to DoS. Note: TLS versions before TLSv1.3 (such as TLSv1.2) are broken but are not vulnerable to OOM. Previous TLS versions require a full handshake renegotiation which causes a connection to hang but not OOM. This is fixed as well. This issue affects Apache ActiveMQ Client: before 5.19.4, from 6.0.0 before 6.2.4; Apache ActiveMQ Broker: before 5.19.4, from 6.0.0 before 6.2.4; Apache ActiveMQ: before 5.19.4, from 6.0.0 before 6.2.4. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 6.2.4 or 5.19.5, which fixes the issue.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
V15.4.4
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly enforces a hard limit on concurrent sessions, structurally preventing unbounded resource allocation.
SC-5 directly limits the effects of resource-exhaustion events that constitute uncontrolled consumption.
SC-6 enforces explicit allocation limits on resources, structurally preventing the weakness from occurring.
Imposes a limit on consecutive invalid attempts, preventing one specific class of unbounded resource consumption.
Process isolation confines resource consumption to separate domains, reducing blast radius without stopping the root flaw.
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.
Explicitly requires monitoring and maintaining resource capacity, directly addressing uncontrolled consumption to preserve availability.
Continuous monitoring of computing resources can detect resource exhaustion but does not itself enforce allocation limits.
Resilience mechanisms such as avoiding single points of failure indirectly reduce impact of resource exhaustion.
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.
Resource-utilization monitoring and alerting on bottlenecks or overloads limits the impact of denial-of-service or resource-exhaustion attacks.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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