CVE-2024-38068 is a vulnerability in the Windows Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) server component present in Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809 (build 10.0.17763.0). The vulnerability is classified under CWE-400, which pertains to uncontrolled resource consumption, commonly known as a denial of service (DoS) condition. The flaw allows a remote attacker to send specially crafted requests to the OCSP server, causing it to consume excessive system resources such as CPU or memory. This resource exhaustion can lead to service degradation or complete denial of service, rendering the OCSP server unresponsive. The OCSP server is critical for validating the revocation status of digital certificates in real-time, which is essential for secure communications and trust in PKI environments. The vulnerability requires no authentication or user interaction, making it remotely exploitable over the network with low attack complexity. The CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5 reflects a high severity due to the impact on availability and ease of exploitation. Although no known exploits have been reported in the wild as of the publication date, the vulnerability poses a significant risk to environments still running this legacy Windows version. Microsoft has not yet provided a patch link, indicating that remediation may require interim mitigations or monitoring until an official update is released.

The primary impact of CVE-2024-38068 is a denial of service condition affecting the availability of the Windows OCSP server on affected Windows 10 Version 1809 systems. For European organizations, this can disrupt certificate validation processes, potentially impacting secure communications, authentication mechanisms, and access to critical services that rely on real-time certificate status checking. Industries such as finance, healthcare, government, and telecommunications that depend heavily on PKI infrastructure could experience service outages or degraded security posture. The inability to validate certificate revocation status may lead to fallback behaviors or security warnings, complicating operational continuity. Since Windows 10 Version 1809 is an older release, organizations that have not upgraded or patched legacy systems remain vulnerable. The lack of known exploits in the wild reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the threat, especially given the ease of exploitation and potential for automated attacks. The vulnerability could be leveraged as part of a larger attack chain to disrupt services or as a denial of service vector against critical infrastructure components.

1. Apply official patches or updates from Microsoft as soon as they become available to address this vulnerability directly. 2. If patches are not yet released, restrict network access to the OCSP server component by implementing firewall rules or network segmentation to limit exposure to untrusted networks. 3. Monitor OCSP server performance and resource utilization closely for signs of abnormal activity or resource exhaustion. 4. Consider deploying rate limiting or traffic filtering mechanisms on the OCSP service endpoints to mitigate potential abuse. 5. Upgrade affected systems from Windows 10 Version 1809 to a supported, patched version of Windows 10 or Windows 11 to reduce exposure to legacy vulnerabilities. 6. Review and harden PKI infrastructure configurations to ensure resilience against OCSP service disruptions, including fallback mechanisms and alternative certificate validation methods. 7. Educate IT and security teams about this vulnerability to ensure timely detection and response to potential exploitation attempts.