CVE-2024-8028 is a vulnerability classified under CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) affecting the danswer-ai/danswer application, specifically version 0.3.94. The flaw arises from improper handling of multipart file upload boundaries. An attacker can craft a multipart boundary string appended with an excessively large number of characters, which causes the server to enter a resource-intensive processing loop. This leads to a Denial of Service (DoS) condition by exhausting server CPU and memory resources, rendering the application inaccessible to legitimate users. The attack vector is network-based, requiring no authentication or user interaction, making exploitation straightforward. The vulnerability impacts availability only, with no direct compromise of confidentiality or integrity. Although no public exploits have been reported, the CVSS score of 7.5 (high) reflects the ease of exploitation and significant impact on service availability. The vulnerability affects all unspecified versions of danswer-ai/danswer, and no official patches have been linked yet. The root cause is the lack of limits or throttling on resource allocation when processing multipart boundaries, a common vector for resource exhaustion attacks.

For European organizations deploying danswer-ai/danswer, this vulnerability poses a significant risk of service disruption through Denial of Service attacks. The unavailability of the application can impact business operations, especially for companies relying on AI-driven tools for data analysis, customer interaction, or internal workflows. The attack requires no authentication, increasing the risk of widespread exploitation by external threat actors. Given the increasing adoption of AI and developer tools in Europe, particularly in technology hubs and industries such as finance, manufacturing, and research, the potential impact includes operational downtime, loss of productivity, and reputational damage. Additionally, organizations providing AI services to customers may face compliance and contractual issues if service levels are not maintained. The lack of known exploits currently limits immediate risk but does not diminish the urgency for mitigation due to the vulnerability's simplicity and high impact.

To mitigate CVE-2024-8028, organizations should implement the following specific measures: 1) Apply any available patches or updates from the danswer-ai project as soon as they are released. 2) In the absence of patches, configure web servers and application frameworks to enforce strict limits on multipart boundary lengths and overall request size to prevent resource exhaustion. 3) Deploy Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block multipart requests with abnormally long boundaries or malformed headers. 4) Implement rate limiting and request throttling to reduce the impact of repeated malicious requests from a single source. 5) Monitor application logs and network traffic for unusual multipart upload patterns indicative of exploitation attempts. 6) Consider isolating the vulnerable service behind reverse proxies that can perform additional validation and filtering. 7) Educate development and security teams about secure handling of multipart data to prevent similar vulnerabilities in future releases.