CVE-2025-36047 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty versions 18.0.0.2 through 25.0.0.8. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-770, which pertains to the allocation of resources without limits or throttling. Specifically, this flaw allows a remote attacker to send a specially crafted request to the WebSphere Liberty server, causing it to consume excessive memory resources. This uncontrolled resource consumption can lead to a denial of service (DoS) condition, where legitimate users are unable to access the application server due to resource exhaustion. The vulnerability does not require any authentication or user interaction, and the attack vector is network-based, making it exploitable remotely. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.3, reflecting a medium severity primarily due to the impact on availability without affecting confidentiality or integrity. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no official patches have been linked yet, indicating that organizations should monitor IBM advisories closely for updates. The vulnerability affects a widely used Java EE application server platform that hosts critical enterprise applications, making it a significant concern for organizations relying on WebSphere Liberty for their middleware infrastructure.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk of service disruption in environments running IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty. Given that many enterprises, including financial institutions, government agencies, and large corporations across Europe, utilize WebSphere Liberty for hosting business-critical applications, a successful exploitation could result in downtime, impacting business operations and service availability. The denial of service could affect internal applications, customer-facing portals, or integrated services, potentially leading to financial losses and reputational damage. While the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, the availability impact alone can be significant, especially for sectors requiring high uptime and reliability. Additionally, the ease of remote exploitation without authentication increases the risk profile, as attackers can launch attacks from outside the network perimeter. European organizations with exposed or poorly segmented WebSphere Liberty instances are particularly vulnerable to such attacks.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should implement the following specific measures: 1) Immediately review and restrict network exposure of IBM WebSphere Liberty servers, ensuring they are not directly accessible from untrusted networks or the internet. 2) Apply strict access controls and firewall rules to limit incoming traffic to trusted sources only. 3) Monitor application server resource usage closely to detect abnormal memory consumption patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. 4) Implement rate limiting or request throttling at the network or application level to prevent excessive resource allocation triggered by malicious requests. 5) Stay vigilant for IBM security advisories and apply official patches or updates as soon as they become available. 6) Consider deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious request patterns targeting this vulnerability. 7) Conduct regular security assessments and penetration tests focusing on resource exhaustion scenarios to validate the effectiveness of controls. These targeted actions go beyond generic advice by focusing on network exposure reduction, proactive monitoring, and layered defenses tailored to the nature of this resource allocation vulnerability.