CVE-2024-38875 is a denial of service vulnerability identified in the Django web framework, specifically affecting versions before 4.2.14 and 5.0 before 5.0.7. The vulnerability resides in the urlize and urlizetrunc functions, which are used to convert plain text URLs into clickable links. These functions can be exploited by submitting inputs containing an abnormally large number of brackets. This input causes the functions to consume excessive CPU and memory resources due to inefficient parsing or recursive processing, leading to application slowdown or crash. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-130 (Improper Handling of Length Parameter Inconsistency), indicating a failure to properly limit input size or complexity. The CVSS v3.1 score is 7.5 (high), reflecting that the attack can be launched remotely without authentication or user interaction and results in a complete denial of service, impacting availability but not confidentiality or integrity. No patches were linked in the provided data, but the fixed versions are 4.2.14 and 5.0.7. No known exploits have been reported in the wild yet, but the vulnerability presents a significant risk for web applications relying on the affected Django versions.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2024-38875 is the potential disruption of web services built on vulnerable Django versions. This can lead to denial of service conditions, causing downtime, degraded user experience, and potential loss of business continuity. Critical sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and e-commerce that rely on Django-based applications could face operational interruptions. Although the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, the availability impact can indirectly affect trust and compliance with service-level agreements and regulatory requirements like GDPR. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely without authentication, increasing the risk of widespread service outages if exploited at scale. Organizations with public-facing Django applications are particularly vulnerable to automated or targeted DoS attacks leveraging this flaw.

To mitigate CVE-2024-38875, organizations should prioritize upgrading Django installations to versions 4.2.14 or 5.0.7 or later, where the vulnerability is patched. Until upgrades can be applied, consider implementing input validation or rate limiting on user inputs that are processed by urlize and urlizetrunc functions to prevent excessively large or complex bracketed inputs. Web application firewalls (WAFs) can be configured to detect and block suspicious payloads containing large numbers of brackets. Monitoring application logs for abnormal resource usage or repeated processing of suspicious inputs can help identify attempted exploitation. Additionally, ensure that resource limits (CPU, memory) are enforced at the application or container level to reduce the impact of potential DoS attempts. Regularly review and test incident response plans for availability-related incidents to minimize downtime.