CVE-2024-13009 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting Eclipse Foundation's Jetty server versions 9.4.0 through 9.4.56. The flaw arises from improper resource shutdown or release (CWE-404) during the processing of HTTP request bodies that are compressed using gzip. Specifically, when Jetty attempts to inflate a gzip-compressed request body and encounters an error, it may incorrectly release a buffer. This mishandling can lead to memory corruption or inadvertent sharing of data between different HTTP requests. Such behavior compromises the isolation between requests, potentially allowing sensitive data leakage or cross-request data contamination. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.2, reflecting its network attack vector (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and a scope change (S:C) that affects confidentiality and integrity but not availability. Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the nature of the flaw suggests that an attacker could craft malicious HTTP requests with malformed gzip content to trigger the buffer mismanagement, leading to partial data disclosure or integrity violations within the affected Jetty server environment. Jetty is widely used as an embedded HTTP server and servlet container in Java applications, including many enterprise and cloud services, making this vulnerability relevant for a broad range of deployments.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2024-13009 can be significant, especially for those relying on Jetty as part of their web infrastructure or embedded in critical Java applications. The vulnerability can lead to leakage of sensitive information between requests, which may include personal data protected under GDPR, intellectual property, or authentication tokens. This data leakage undermines confidentiality and could facilitate further attacks such as session hijacking or privilege escalation. Integrity issues may also arise if corrupted data is processed or logged, potentially affecting application behavior or audit trails. Given Jetty's use in various sectors including finance, healthcare, government, and telecommunications across Europe, exploitation could disrupt trust and compliance with data protection regulations. Although availability is not directly impacted, the reputational and regulatory consequences of data breaches are considerable. The vulnerability's network-exploitable nature and lack of required privileges increase the risk profile for exposed services, particularly those accessible from the internet or untrusted networks.

European organizations should prioritize updating Jetty to a fixed version beyond 9.4.56 as soon as a patch is released by the Eclipse Foundation. Until then, practical mitigations include: 1) Implementing strict input validation and filtering at the network perimeter to block malformed gzip requests or suspicious traffic patterns targeting HTTP compression. 2) Deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and mitigate anomalous request payloads that could trigger the vulnerability. 3) Isolating Jetty instances handling sensitive data from public networks or untrusted clients to reduce exposure. 4) Monitoring application logs and network traffic for signs of gzip-related errors or unusual request failures that may indicate exploitation attempts. 5) Conducting thorough code reviews and testing for any custom Jetty integrations to ensure proper resource management around request decompression. 6) Employing runtime application self-protection (RASP) tools that can detect and prevent memory corruption or data leakage at runtime. These targeted measures go beyond generic patching advice and help reduce attack surface and detection time.