VulnerabilityPublished 22 Aug 2024Updated 16 Sep 2026

CVE-2024-45163: Mirai botnet · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.1 Critical.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

9.1Critical

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 55% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 22 Aug 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

ghsa-cm9m-hp76-grcq

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-45163, organizations should implement network-level controls to limit the number of simultaneous TCP connections to CNC servers, such as connection rate limiting and timeouts for unauthenticated sessions. Deploying intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) to monitor for unusual connection patterns or malformed data targeting CNC infrastructure can help detect exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and firewall rules should restrict access to CNC servers to trusted sources only, if possible. Since no patches are currently available, operators of CNC servers should consider redesigning or updating their connection handling logic to properly close unauthenticated sessions and manage resource allocation efficiently. Regular monitoring of server resource usage and logs can provide early warning signs of exploitation attempts. Collaboration with ISPs and threat intelligence sharing communities can help track emerging exploit activity and coordinate defensive measures. Finally, organizations should maintain up-to-date threat intelligence on Mirai and related botnets to anticipate and respond to evolving tactics.

Description

The Mirai botnet through 2024-08-19 mishandles simultaneous TCP connections to the CNC (command and control) server. Unauthenticated sessions remain open, causing resource consumption. For example, an attacker can send a recognized username (such as root), or can send arbitrary data.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2024-45163 is the potential for denial of service against the Mirai CNC servers due to resource exhaustion from unauthenticated, persistent TCP connections. This can degrade or disrupt the botnet's command and control infrastructure, potentially reducing the botnet's operational effectiveness. For organizations, this vulnerability could be a double-edged sword: defenders might exploit it to disrupt malicious botnet operations, but attackers could also weaponize it to cause instability or outages in CNC servers, affecting botnet management and possibly leading to collateral damage in networks hosting these servers. Additionally, if attackers use this vulnerability to exhaust resources, it could lead to broader network congestion or impact other services running on the same infrastructure. Given the critical CVSS score and the ease of exploitation (no authentication or user interaction required), the threat poses a significant risk to entities involved in botnet operations and those monitoring or mitigating Mirai-based threats. The lack of patches increases the urgency for proactive defenses.

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place.
Architecture and Design
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or; uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Sustained Client Engagement (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 18 Mar 2026, 18:18 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-400

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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