CVE-2024-38095 is a vulnerability identified in Microsoft PowerShell version 7.4.0, classified under CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation). This flaw allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to send specially crafted input to PowerShell, causing it to improperly handle the input and crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability affects the availability of the service without impacting confidentiality or integrity. The CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5 indicates a high-severity issue with network attack vector (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), and no user interaction (UI:N). The scope remains unchanged (S:U), meaning the impact is limited to the vulnerable component. The vulnerability is related to .NET and Visual Studio components used by PowerShell, which fail to validate input correctly, leading to service disruption. No public exploits or active exploitation have been reported yet, but the potential for disruption in automated environments is significant. PowerShell 7.4 is widely used for automation, scripting, and system management, making this vulnerability relevant for enterprise environments. The lack of a patch link suggests that a fix may be pending or recently released, so organizations should monitor vendor advisories closely.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2024-38095 is the potential disruption of automated workflows, system management, and orchestration tasks that rely on PowerShell 7.4. This can lead to downtime of critical IT services, delayed operations, and increased operational costs. Sectors such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and government, which heavily utilize PowerShell for automation and configuration management, could face significant availability issues. The denial of service does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity but can degrade trust in IT infrastructure reliability. Additionally, organizations with remote management setups exposing PowerShell endpoints are at higher risk. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the threat, especially as attackers may develop exploits given the public disclosure. The impact is magnified in environments where PowerShell 7.4 is integrated into continuous deployment pipelines or critical infrastructure management.

1. Monitor Microsoft security advisories and apply official patches or updates for PowerShell 7.4 as soon as they become available. 2. Restrict network access to PowerShell remoting endpoints using firewalls, VPNs, or network segmentation to limit exposure to untrusted networks. 3. Implement application whitelisting and endpoint detection to monitor and block anomalous PowerShell activity. 4. Use Just Enough Administration (JEA) and constrained language mode in PowerShell to reduce the attack surface. 5. Regularly audit and review PowerShell usage and scripts to detect unusual input patterns or errors that may indicate exploitation attempts. 6. Employ rate limiting or connection throttling on services exposing PowerShell remoting to mitigate potential DoS attempts. 7. Educate IT staff about this vulnerability and ensure incident response plans include steps for handling PowerShell service disruptions.