CVE-2024-56524 is a critical security vulnerability affecting Radware Cloud Web Application Firewall (WAF) versions prior to May 7, 2025. The vulnerability allows remote attackers to bypass the firewall's filtering mechanisms by appending a special character to HTTP requests. This bypass occurs due to improper input validation and encoding issues related to special characters, classified under CWE-116 (Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output). The flaw enables attackers to circumvent security controls designed to block malicious requests, potentially allowing unauthorized access to protected web applications or enabling injection attacks. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.1 reflects the high severity of this vulnerability, with an attack vector that is network-based (AV:N), requiring no privileges (PR:N) or user interaction (UI:N), and impacting confidentiality and integrity (C:H/I:H) without affecting availability (A:N). Although no known exploits are reported in the wild yet, the ease of exploitation and the critical impact make this a significant threat to organizations relying on Radware Cloud WAF for web application security.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a substantial risk to the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data processed by web applications protected by Radware Cloud WAF. Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized data access, data manipulation, or bypassing of security policies, undermining compliance with stringent data protection regulations such as GDPR. Organizations in sectors like finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure, which often deploy advanced WAF solutions, may face increased exposure to data breaches or targeted attacks. The bypass could also facilitate further exploitation by attackers, including injection attacks or lateral movement within networks. Given the critical nature of the vulnerability and the widespread use of cloud-based WAF services, the potential for large-scale impact across multiple industries in Europe is significant.

Organizations should prioritize updating Radware Cloud WAF to the fixed version released on or after May 7, 2025, as this is the definitive mitigation against the vulnerability. In the interim, administrators should implement strict input validation and sanitization at the application level to detect and block suspicious special characters in HTTP requests. Deploying additional security layers such as Web Application Security Testing (WAST) tools and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) can help identify attempts to exploit this bypass. Monitoring and logging HTTP request patterns for anomalies related to special character usage is recommended to detect potential exploitation attempts early. Network segmentation and limiting exposure of critical web applications to only trusted networks can reduce the attack surface. Finally, organizations should review and update their incident response plans to address potential exploitation scenarios involving WAF bypasses.