CVE-2024-38828 — spring-webmvc
MEDIUMCVE-2024-38828 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in org.springframework:spring-webmvc. A fix is available for org.springframework:spring-webmvc — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Spring MVC controller vulnerable to a DoS attack
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-38828.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
org.springframework:spring-webmvcReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Spring MVC controller methods with an @RequestBody byte[] method parameter are vulnerable to a DoS attack.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.springframework:spring-webmvc | ≥ 5.3.0&&< 5.3.42 | 5.3.42org.springframework:spring-webmvc:5.3.42 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.springframework:spring-webmvc, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.springframework:spring-webmvc to 5.3.42 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-38828 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
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.
Moderate impact: Red Hat products using the affected Spring MVC component can be exposed to a network-reachable, low-complexity denial-of-service attack without authentication or user interaction when a controller method accepts a request body through an @RequestBody byte[] parameter. The consequence is limited to…
For older unsupported versions, an application can replace an affected controller method's @RequestBody byte[] parameter with an InputStream parameter to access the request body, where compatible with the application. Otherwise, upgrade to the corresponding vendor-provided fixed build.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2024-38828 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-38828 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.