CVE-2024-48530 identifies a vulnerability in the Instructor Appointment Availability module of eSoft Planner version 3.24.08271-USA. This vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) condition by sending a crafted POST request to the affected module. The root cause is related to CWE-770, which involves allocation of excessive resources or improper handling of resource consumption, leading to exhaustion and service disruption. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 7.5, reflecting a high severity due to the ease of exploitation (network attack vector, no privileges required, no user interaction) and the impact on availability. The vulnerability does not affect confidentiality or integrity, but the loss of availability can disrupt critical scheduling functions within educational institutions using eSoft Planner. No patches or mitigations have been officially released at the time of publication, and no active exploitation has been reported. The vulnerability is publicly disclosed, so organizations should prepare to respond quickly. Given the nature of the software, the attack surface is primarily educational institutions and organizations managing instructor appointments. The lack of authentication requirement and remote exploitability increases the risk of widespread impact if exploited.

The primary impact of CVE-2024-48530 is a Denial of Service condition that can disrupt the availability of the Instructor Appointment Availability module in eSoft Planner. This disruption can prevent instructors and students from scheduling or managing appointments, potentially causing operational delays and administrative challenges. For educational institutions relying on this software, the inability to access scheduling services can affect course management, instructor availability, and student support services. While confidentiality and integrity are not directly impacted, the loss of availability can degrade trust in the system and force organizations to revert to manual scheduling processes, increasing workload and error risk. If exploited at scale, this vulnerability could lead to widespread service outages in institutions using this software, affecting thousands of users. The ease of exploitation without authentication and user interaction raises the likelihood of automated attacks, increasing the urgency for mitigation. The absence of known exploits in the wild currently reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the threat as attackers may develop exploits following public disclosure.

1. Monitor official eSoft Planner communications and security advisories closely for patches or updates addressing CVE-2024-48530 and apply them promptly once available. 2. Implement network-level protections such as Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) to detect and block suspicious POST requests targeting the Instructor Appointment Availability module. 3. Employ rate limiting and request throttling on the affected endpoints to reduce the risk of resource exhaustion from crafted requests. 4. Restrict access to the affected module to trusted IP ranges or VPNs where feasible, limiting exposure to untrusted networks. 5. Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focused on resource exhaustion vulnerabilities to identify similar issues proactively. 6. Prepare incident response plans to quickly restore service availability in case of exploitation, including fallback manual scheduling procedures. 7. Log and monitor POST request patterns for anomalies that may indicate exploitation attempts. 8. Engage with the vendor for detailed technical guidance and potential workarounds until an official patch is released.