CVE-2024-0403 is a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability identified in the Recipes application, specifically version 1.5.10. SSRF vulnerabilities occur when an attacker can abuse a server's functionality to make HTTP requests to arbitrary locations, potentially accessing internal or protected resources that are not directly accessible from the outside. In this case, the Recipes application allows arbitrary HTTP requests to be made through the server without proper validation or restrictions. This means an attacker can craft requests that the server will execute, potentially targeting internal services, cloud metadata endpoints, or other sensitive network resources. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-918, which covers SSRF issues. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 6.5 (medium severity), with the vector indicating that the attack can be performed remotely over the network (AV:N), requires no privileges (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and impacts confidentiality and integrity to a limited extent (C:L/I:L), but does not affect availability (A:N). No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability was published on February 29, 2024, and was reserved earlier in January 2024. The lack of authentication or user interaction requirements increases the risk of exploitation, though the impact is limited to partial confidentiality and integrity loss. Attackers could potentially use this SSRF to access internal APIs, retrieve sensitive data, or perform reconnaissance within the internal network, depending on the server's network environment and the resources accessible from it.

For European organizations using the Recipes application version 1.5.10, this SSRF vulnerability poses a moderate risk. If exploited, attackers could leverage the server to access internal network resources that are otherwise protected by firewalls or network segmentation. This could lead to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, such as internal APIs, configuration data, or cloud metadata services that might contain credentials or tokens. The integrity impact suggests attackers might manipulate or inject data into internal services if those services are reachable and vulnerable. While availability is not directly affected, the breach of confidentiality and integrity could lead to further attacks or data leaks. European organizations with sensitive internal networks or those relying on Recipes for critical business functions should be particularly cautious. The risk is heightened in environments where the server has broad network access or where internal services lack robust authentication. Additionally, compliance with GDPR and other data protection regulations means that any data leakage could result in regulatory penalties and reputational damage.

To mitigate this SSRF vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Immediately assess if they are running Recipes version 1.5.10 and plan for an upgrade or patch once available. 2) Implement network-level controls such as egress filtering and firewall rules to restrict the server's ability to make outbound HTTP requests to only trusted destinations. 3) Employ application-layer input validation and sanitization to restrict or validate URLs or endpoints that the server can access, preventing arbitrary request injection. 4) Use network segmentation to isolate the server hosting Recipes from sensitive internal resources and metadata services. 5) Monitor logs for unusual outbound HTTP requests originating from the Recipes server to detect potential exploitation attempts. 6) Consider deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with rules targeting SSRF patterns to block malicious requests. 7) Educate development and operations teams about SSRF risks and secure coding practices to prevent similar vulnerabilities in future releases.