CVE-2023-48834 is a high-severity vulnerability identified in the Car Rental v3.0 application, specifically within the pjActionAjaxSend function. The core issue is the absence of rate limiting controls on this function, which allows an attacker to send an unlimited number of requests without restriction. This lack of throttling can lead to resource exhaustion on the server hosting the application. Resource exhaustion typically manifests as excessive consumption of CPU, memory, or network bandwidth, potentially causing denial of service (DoS) conditions where legitimate users are unable to access the service. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-400, which pertains to uncontrolled resource consumption. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 7.5, indicating a high severity level. The vector string (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) shows that the attack can be performed remotely over the network without any privileges or user interaction, and it impacts availability only, without compromising confidentiality or integrity. No patches or vendor information are currently available, and there are no known exploits in the wild at this time. The lack of vendor and product details limits the ability to provide vendor-specific mitigation or detection strategies, but the vulnerability’s nature suggests that any deployment of Car Rental v3.0 with the vulnerable function exposed to the internet or untrusted networks is at risk of DoS attacks through resource exhaustion.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be significant, particularly for businesses in the travel, hospitality, and car rental sectors that rely on the affected Car Rental v3.0 application or similar systems. A successful exploitation could lead to service outages, disrupting booking processes and customer interactions, which in turn can cause financial losses, reputational damage, and customer dissatisfaction. Additionally, prolonged denial of service could affect integrated systems such as payment gateways or customer management platforms, amplifying operational disruptions. Given that the attack requires no authentication or user interaction, threat actors can easily launch automated attacks from anywhere, increasing the risk of widespread disruption. Organizations with online booking platforms accessible from the internet are especially vulnerable. Furthermore, the absence of patches means that mitigation relies heavily on network-level controls and application configuration changes. The impact on availability could also affect compliance with service level agreements (SLAs) and regulatory requirements related to business continuity and operational resilience within the European Union and other jurisdictions.

To mitigate this vulnerability effectively, European organizations should implement strict rate limiting and throttling controls at multiple layers. Specifically, deploying web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and limit the frequency of requests to the pjActionAjaxSend endpoint can prevent resource exhaustion attacks. Network-level protections such as intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and DDoS mitigation services should be configured to identify and block abnormal traffic patterns targeting the vulnerable function. Application-level mitigations include adding or enhancing rate limiting logic within the Car Rental v3.0 application code to restrict the number of requests per IP address or user session within a defined time window. Organizations should also conduct thorough logging and monitoring of access to the vulnerable endpoint to detect early signs of abuse. If possible, isolating or segmenting the vulnerable service from critical infrastructure can reduce the blast radius of an attack. Until an official patch or update is released, organizations should consider temporarily disabling or restricting access to the vulnerable functionality if feasible. Finally, maintaining an incident response plan that includes procedures for handling DoS attacks will improve preparedness and response times.