CVE-2024-22025 is a vulnerability identified in the Node.js runtime environment affecting all versions from 4.0 through 21.0. The issue arises from the fetch() function's handling of Brotli-encoded content. Specifically, when fetch() retrieves content from an untrusted URL, it automatically decodes Brotli compression without sufficient safeguards. An attacker who controls the URL input to fetch() can exploit this behavior by serving specially crafted Brotli-compressed responses designed to exhaust system memory resources. This resource exhaustion can lead to Denial of Service (DoS) conditions by causing the Node.js process to terminate or become unresponsive, depending on the system's memory management and configuration. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-404 (Improper Resource Shutdown or Release), highlighting that the resource exhaustion stems from inadequate handling of decompression resource usage. The CVSS v3.0 base score is 6.5, indicating a medium severity level, with an attack vector of network (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), but requiring user interaction (UI:R). The impact is limited to availability (A:H) with no confidentiality or integrity impact. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no official patches have been linked yet. This vulnerability is particularly relevant for applications and services using Node.js that rely on fetch() to retrieve external resources, especially when those URLs are not fully trusted or sanitized. The automatic Brotli decoding without resource limits creates a vector for attackers to induce memory exhaustion remotely, potentially disrupting critical services or applications running Node.js servers or backend processes.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2024-22025 can be significant, especially for those heavily reliant on Node.js for backend services, APIs, or microservices architectures. The vulnerability enables remote attackers to cause Denial of Service by exhausting memory resources, potentially leading to service outages or degraded performance. This can affect availability of web applications, cloud services, and internal tools, disrupting business operations and customer-facing services. Sectors such as finance, telecommunications, e-commerce, and public services that use Node.js extensively could face operational interruptions. Additionally, organizations using Node.js in critical infrastructure or industrial control systems may experience increased risk of downtime. Since the attack requires user interaction (e.g., triggering fetch() with a malicious URL), applications exposing fetch() functionality to user input or third-party data sources are at higher risk. The lack of confidentiality or integrity impact reduces the risk of data breaches but does not mitigate the operational and reputational damage caused by service unavailability. Given the widespread adoption of Node.js across Europe, the vulnerability could affect a broad range of enterprises, startups, and public sector entities.

1. Implement strict input validation and sanitization for any URLs passed to the fetch() function to ensure only trusted or whitelisted domains are accessed. 2. Introduce application-level rate limiting and resource usage monitoring to detect and throttle abnormal fetch() requests that could lead to resource exhaustion. 3. Use containerization or sandboxing techniques to isolate Node.js processes, limiting the impact of potential DoS attacks on the broader system. 4. Employ memory usage monitoring and automatic process restart mechanisms to recover quickly from crashes caused by this vulnerability. 5. Where feasible, avoid using fetch() to retrieve content from untrusted sources or replace it with safer alternatives that allow control over decompression behavior. 6. Stay updated with Node.js releases and apply patches promptly once available, as the current information indicates no official patch yet. 7. Conduct thorough security reviews of codebases to identify any usage of fetch() with user-controllable URLs and refactor to minimize exposure. 8. Consider implementing Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) or API gateways that can filter or block suspicious requests targeting fetch() endpoints. These targeted mitigations go beyond generic advice by focusing on controlling input sources, monitoring resource usage, and isolating vulnerable processes.