Improper Input ValidationWeakness · CWE-20

CVE-2024-3884

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-12-03
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
A flaw was found in Undertow that can cause remote denial of service attacks. When the server uses the FormEncodedDataDefinition.doParse(StreamSourceChannel) method to parse large form data encoding with application/x-www-form-urlencoded, the method will cause an OutOfMemory issue. This flaw allows unauthorized users to cause a remote denial of service (DoS) attack.

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 · high confidence

A denial of service vulnerability exists in Undertow's FormEncodedDataDefinition.doParse() method. When parsing large form data with application/x-www-form-urlencoded content type, the method loads the entire request body into memory without proper bounds checking, causing an OutOfMemoryError that crashes the server.

MitigationImplement request body size limits and timeout constraints on the Undertow server configuration to prevent excessive memory allocation from large form submissions. Consider using max-request-size limits and enabling streaming parsers where possible.

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
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Undertow installation
    Locate the undertow-core JAR file in your application (search in lib/, WEB-INF/lib/, or application server modules directory) or check your build manifest/pom for undertow dependency version
    Affected if Undertow is present in the environment and its version falls within the affected range (prior to fix)
  2. Determine Undertow version
    Extract or inspect the undertow-core version from the JAR manifest, pom.xml, or list the installed packages if using an application server package (e.g., rpm -qi undertow-core or similar)
    Affected if The installed version is unknown or older than the patched version - compare against the official CVE advisory for version numbers
  3. Verify form parsing is in use
    Inspect your web application endpoints and Undertow server configuration for handlers that process application/x-www-form-urlencoded requests (HTML forms, API endpoints accepting form data)
    Affected if Your application accepts or processes URL-encoded form submissions through Undertow's FormEncodedDataDefinition
  4. Check request body configuration
    Examine undertow-server.xml, jboss-web.xml, or the Undertow builder configuration for any existing http-handler or server builder settings that explicitly limit max-request-body-size
    Affected if No explicit request body size limits are configured and the Undertow version is unpatched or within the vulnerable range
  5. Confirm exposed attack surface
    Review access logs or API gateway logs for any POST/PUT requests to form-handling endpoints with large payloads, or test by sending a large URL-encoded body to your form endpoints
    Affected if Form-encoded endpoints are externally accessible and no size-based throttling is enforced at the Undertow or proxy layer

You are affected if Undertow is present with an unpatched version and your application exposes endpoints that handle application/x-www-form-urlencoded data without enforced request body size limits.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement request body size limits and timeout constraints on the Undertow server configuration to prevent excessive memory allocation from large form submissions. Consider using max-request-size limits and enabling streaming parsers where possible.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-3884 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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