CVE-2024-38286 is a resource allocation vulnerability classified under CWE-770, found in Apache Tomcat versions ranging from 7.0.92 through 11.0.0-M20, including some end-of-life versions. The flaw arises from the lack of limits or throttling during the TLS handshake process, which can be abused by an unauthenticated remote attacker to trigger an OutOfMemoryError. This occurs because the server allocates resources excessively without proper controls, leading to exhaustion of memory and denial of service. The vulnerability is network exploitable (AV:N), requires no privileges (PR:N), and no user interaction (UI:N), with a scope change (S:C) indicating the impact extends beyond the vulnerable component. The CVSS v3.1 score is 8.6, reflecting high severity due to the potential for complete service disruption. The issue affects multiple supported and EOL versions, emphasizing the need for patching or upgrading to fixed versions 11.0.0-M21, 10.1.25, or 9.0.90. While no exploits have been observed in the wild, the vulnerability's characteristics make it a credible threat for denial-of-service attacks, especially in environments with high TLS traffic. The vulnerability impacts availability (A:H) without compromising confidentiality or integrity, making it a critical concern for service continuity in web applications relying on Tomcat.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to service availability, particularly for those relying on Apache Tomcat for web application hosting, middleware, or enterprise services. An attacker can remotely trigger resource exhaustion, causing server crashes or degraded performance, leading to denial-of-service conditions. This can disrupt critical business operations, customer-facing services, and internal applications. Sectors such as finance, government, healthcare, and telecommunications, which often use Tomcat in their infrastructure, may experience operational downtime and reputational damage. Additionally, the lack of authentication and user interaction requirements lowers the barrier for attackers, increasing the likelihood of exploitation attempts. Organizations with high TLS traffic volumes are especially vulnerable, as the attack vector exploits the TLS handshake process. The impact extends to cloud-hosted services and on-premises deployments alike, affecting both public-facing and internal systems.

European organizations should immediately assess their Apache Tomcat deployments to identify affected versions. The primary mitigation is to upgrade to the fixed versions 11.0.0-M21, 10.1.25, or 9.0.90 as recommended by Apache. For environments where immediate upgrading is not feasible, organizations should implement network-level protections such as rate limiting TLS handshake requests, deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block abnormal TLS handshake patterns, and monitoring for unusual memory usage or service crashes. Additionally, configuring JVM memory limits and enabling garbage collection tuning may help mitigate the impact. Organizations should also review TLS configuration to ensure no unnecessary protocols or cipher suites are enabled that could increase handshake complexity. Regularly updating and patching infrastructure components, combined with proactive monitoring and incident response readiness, will reduce the risk and impact of exploitation.