CVE-2024-38809
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedApplications that parse ETags from "If-Match" or "If-None-Match" request headers are vulnerable to DoS attack. Users of affected versions should upgrade to the corresponding fixed version. Users of older, unsupported versions could enforce a size limit on "If-Match" and "If-None-Match" headers, e.g. through a Filter.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceApplications parsing ETags from HTTP If-Match or If-None-Match request headers are vulnerable to denial of service attacks, likely due to unbounded header processing that allows excessively large headers to exhaust resources.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if the application processes If-Match or If-None-Match headersReview application code and search for usages of HttpServletRequest.getHeader() or framework annotations (@RequestHeader, @GetMapping with headers) that reference 'If-Match' or 'If-None-Match'. Also check for ETag generation logic using the If-Match/If-None-Match headers for conditional requests.Affected if The application processes these headers without any size validation
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Verify if there is size validation on HTTP ETag headersSearch configuration files and servlet filters for any max header size limits, specifically for If-Match and If-None-Match headers. Check web server (e.g., Tomcat, Jetty) configuration for headerSizeLimit or similar settings.Affected if No explicit size limit is configured for If-Match or If-None-Match headers
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Check the framework version for known vulnerable releasesIdentify the web framework or library handling HTTP requests (e.g., Spring Framework). Compare the installed version against any known fixed versions if available. If the framework is unknown, document the version for further research.Affected if The framework version is older than the fixed release or is unknown/unpatched
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Inspect servlet filter chain for header validationReview any custom servlet filters or Spring HandlerInterceptors that process request headers. Verify whether they implement explicit length checks or reject oversized headers before passing to application logic.Affected if No filter explicitly validates or limits the size of If-Match/If-None-Match headers
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Check application logs and metrics for resource exhaustion patternsReview application logs for out-of-memory errors, thread pool exhaustion, or excessive memory consumption that correlates with requests containing large If-Match or If-None-Match header values.Affected if Resource exhaustion is observed in logs during requests with large ETag headers
A user is affected if their application processes If-Match or If-None-Match headers from HTTP requests without enforcing size limits and uses a vulnerable framework version.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to the fixed version of the affected framework, or implement a servlet filter to enforce size limits on If-Match and If-None-Match headers as a workaround.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-38809 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-38809 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data