CVE-2024-3884 identifies a vulnerability in the Undertow web server component used by Red Hat OpenShift Serverless. The root cause lies in the FormEncodedDataDefinition.doParse(StreamSourceChannel) method, which is responsible for parsing HTTP requests with the content type application/x-www-form-urlencoded. When processing large form data payloads, this method fails to properly validate input size or resource consumption, leading to excessive memory allocation and an OutOfMemoryError. This condition can be triggered remotely by sending specially crafted large form-encoded HTTP requests to the server. Because the flaw does not require authentication or user interaction, any remote attacker can exploit it to cause a denial of service by exhausting server memory resources, resulting in service crashes or degraded performance. The vulnerability affects Red Hat OpenShift Serverless deployments that utilize the vulnerable Undertow version. Although no specific affected versions are listed, the flaw is significant enough to warrant prompt attention. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 7.5, reflecting a high impact on availability with no impact on confidentiality or integrity. No known public exploits have been reported yet, but the simplicity of the attack vector suggests a potential for future exploitation. This vulnerability highlights the importance of input validation and resource management in web server components within containerized and serverless environments.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2024-3884 is the risk of remote denial of service attacks against Red Hat OpenShift Serverless environments. This can lead to unplanned downtime, service interruptions, and degraded application performance, affecting business continuity and user experience. Organizations relying on OpenShift Serverless for critical workloads, especially in sectors like finance, telecommunications, and public services, may face operational disruptions. The vulnerability does not expose sensitive data or allow unauthorized code execution, so confidentiality and integrity impacts are minimal. However, availability degradation can indirectly affect compliance with service-level agreements (SLAs) and regulatory requirements such as GDPR if services become unavailable. Additionally, repeated or sustained DoS attacks could increase operational costs and damage organizational reputation. Given the widespread adoption of Red Hat OpenShift in Europe, particularly in countries with strong enterprise IT sectors, the threat is material and warrants proactive mitigation.

To mitigate CVE-2024-3884, European organizations should: 1) Monitor Red Hat advisories closely and apply official patches or updates to OpenShift Serverless and the underlying Undertow component as soon as they become available. 2) Implement network-level controls such as rate limiting, request size restrictions, and web application firewalls (WAFs) to detect and block unusually large or malformed application/x-www-form-urlencoded requests. 3) Configure resource quotas and memory limits within OpenShift to prevent a single pod or container from exhausting host memory resources. 4) Employ monitoring and alerting on memory usage and application performance metrics to detect early signs of exploitation attempts. 5) Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focused on input validation and denial of service vectors in serverless environments. 6) Educate development and operations teams about secure coding and deployment practices to minimize similar vulnerabilities in custom serverless functions. These measures, combined with timely patching, will reduce the risk and impact of exploitation.