CVE-2024-38475 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.1) CWE-116 vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2025-05-01) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache HTTP Server weakness in mod_rewrite when first segment of substitution matches filesystem path.
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2025-05-01. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2025-05-22.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2024-38475.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-38475 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
Improper escaping of output in mod_rewrite in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.59 and earlier allows an attacker to map URLs to filesystem locations that are permitted to be served by the server but are not intentionally/directly reachable by any URL, resulting in code execution or source code disclosure.
Substitutions in server context that use a backreferences or variables as the first segment of the substitution are affected. Some unsafe RewiteRules will be broken by this change and the rewrite flag "UnsafePrefixStat" can be used to opt back in once ensuring the substitution is appropriately constrained.
Affected Products
http serverapacheontap 9netappsma 200 firmwaresonicwallsma 210 firmwaresonicwallsma 400 firmwaresonicwallsma 410 firmwaresonicwallResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Fix
Upgrade the affected component to the fixed release for CVE-2024-38475, or apply your distribution's backported patch — distro builds are often patched at an older version number, so check your vendor's advisory rather than the upstream version alone.
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 to detect CVE-2024-38475
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2024-38475 -u https://target- Template
- Sonicwall - Pre-Authentication Arbitrary File Read
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Unauthenticated attackers can read arbitrary files from the SonicWall SMA100 filesystem including configuration files, logs, and sensitive data, potentially leading to further exploitation or complete system compromise.
- Remediation
- Upgrade to the latest patched version of SonicWall SMA100 or apply vendor-provided security updates.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (shaikhyaser), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
This issue affects configurations with substitution rules used in the RewriteRule directive using backreferences or variables as the first segment of the substitution. Additionally, this flaw requires mod_rewrite to be loaded and used. This module can be disabled if its functionality is not needed. Red Hat Enterprise…
Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2024-38475 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| JBoss Core Services for RHEL 8 | jbcs-httpd24-httpd-0:2.4.57-13.el8jbcs | RHSA-2024:5239 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 Advanced Update Support | httpd-0:2.4.6-90.el7_7.4 | RHSA-2024:4938 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support | httpd-0:2.4.6-99.el7_9.2 | RHSA-2024:4943 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | httpd:2.4-8100020240712114234.489197e6 | RHSA-2024:4720 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Support | httpd:2.4-8020020240720043142.4cda2c84 | RHSA-2024:4820 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support | httpd:2.4-8040020240720035525.522a0ee4 | RHSA-2024:4830 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support | httpd:2.4-8060020240719220036.ad008a3a | RHSA-2024:4827 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support | httpd:2.4-8080020240717184413.63b34585 | RHSA-2024:4719 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-38475 in your dependencies?
Find it across , including transitive dependencies.