CVE-2024-38095 is a high-severity vulnerability identified in Microsoft PowerShell version 7.4.0, categorized under CWE-20, which relates to improper input validation. The vulnerability specifically affects the .NET and Visual Studio components used by PowerShell, leading to a denial of service (DoS) condition. The root cause is the failure of PowerShell 7.4.0 to properly validate certain inputs, which can be crafted by an attacker to cause the application to crash or become unresponsive, thus denying legitimate users access to PowerShell services. The CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 reflects a high severity level, with an attack vector of network (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), and no user interaction needed (UI:N). The scope is unchanged (S:U), and the impact is limited to availability (A:H) without affecting confidentiality or integrity. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, but the vulnerability is publicly disclosed and should be considered a significant risk due to the widespread use of PowerShell in automation, scripting, and system administration tasks across enterprise environments. The lack of available patches at the time of disclosure increases the urgency for mitigation and monitoring.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a notable risk to operational continuity. PowerShell is extensively used in enterprise environments for automation, configuration management, and orchestration of IT infrastructure. A successful exploitation could disrupt critical business processes by causing denial of service on systems relying on PowerShell scripts, potentially affecting servers, workstations, and cloud environments. This disruption could impact sectors such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and public administration, where PowerShell is integral to daily operations. Additionally, the vulnerability's network attack vector and no requirement for privileges or user interaction make it easier for remote attackers to trigger the DoS condition, increasing the threat landscape. Although no data confidentiality or integrity is directly compromised, the availability impact can lead to downtime, loss of productivity, and increased operational costs. Organizations with automated workflows and DevOps pipelines heavily dependent on PowerShell are particularly vulnerable. The absence of known exploits currently provides a window for proactive defense, but the public disclosure means attackers may develop exploits soon.

European organizations should implement the following specific mitigations: 1) Immediately audit and inventory all systems running PowerShell 7.4.0 to identify affected endpoints. 2) Apply any available patches or updates from Microsoft as soon as they are released; monitor Microsoft security advisories closely. 3) In the interim, consider restricting network access to PowerShell remoting endpoints using firewall rules or network segmentation to limit exposure to untrusted networks. 4) Employ application whitelisting and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor and block suspicious PowerShell activity that could exploit malformed inputs. 5) Review and harden PowerShell execution policies and scripts to minimize exposure to untrusted input sources. 6) Implement rate limiting or resource usage controls on systems to mitigate the impact of potential DoS attempts. 7) Conduct targeted penetration testing and vulnerability scanning focused on PowerShell components to detect exploitation attempts. 8) Educate IT and security teams about this vulnerability and ensure incident response plans include scenarios involving PowerShell DoS attacks.