CVE-2024-37890 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in ws. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2024-37890 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Denial of service when handling a request with many HTTP headers in ws
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, a proxy for how much of the ecosystem is exposed.
wsnpmDescription
ws is an open source WebSocket client and server for Node.js. A request with a number of headers exceeding theserver.maxHeadersCount threshold could be used to crash a ws server. The vulnerability was fixed in [email protected] (e55e510) and backported to [email protected] (22c2876), [email protected] (eeb76d3), and [email protected] (4abd8f6). In vulnerable versions of ws, the issue can be mitigated in the following ways: 1. Reduce the maximum allowed length of the request headers using the --max-http-header-size=size and/or the maxHeaderSize options so that no more headers than the server.maxHeadersCount limit can be sent. 2. Set server.maxHeadersCount to 0 so that no limit is applied.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | ws | ≥ 2.1.0&&< 5.2.4 | 5.2.4 |
| 📦npm | ws | ≥ 6.0.0&&< 6.2.3 | 6.2.3 |
| 📦npm | ws | ≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.5.10 | 7.5.10 |
| 📦npm | ws | ≥ 8.0.0&&< 8.17.1 | 8.17.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ws. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update ws to 5.2.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-37890 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2024-37890 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2024-37890. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-37890 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2024-37890 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.