CVE-2024-45626 in James
Summary
by MITRE • 02/06/2025
Apache James server JMAP HTML to text plain implementation in versions below 3.8.2 and 3.7.6 is subject to unbounded memory consumption that can result in a denial of service.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.7.6 and 3.8.2, which fix this issue.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/06/2025
The Apache James server represents a widely deployed email server solution that supports various email protocols including JMAP which provides a modern application programming interface for email clients. The vulnerability under discussion affects the JMAP implementation's handling of HTML to plain text conversion processes within specific version ranges. This flaw manifests in the server's inability to properly manage memory allocation during the transformation of HTML content into plain text format, creating a condition where memory consumption grows without bounds.
The technical implementation of the HTML to plain text conversion process contains a memory exhaustion vulnerability that occurs when processing specially crafted HTML content through the JMAP interface. The flaw stems from inadequate bounds checking and memory management within the conversion algorithm, allowing malicious actors to submit HTML documents that trigger uncontrolled memory growth during processing. This vulnerability specifically impacts the server's resource management capabilities, as the conversion process fails to implement proper memory limits or garbage collection mechanisms that would normally prevent such unbounded consumption patterns.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates a significant denial of service risk that can completely incapacitate the affected Apache James server instances. Attackers can exploit this weakness by sending carefully constructed HTML messages through the JMAP interface, causing the server to consume increasing amounts of memory until system resources are exhausted. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption as the memory exhaustion can lead to system instability, process crashes, and potentially affect other services running on the same infrastructure. The vulnerability affects both the 3.7.x and 3.8.x release lines, with the specific fixed versions being 3.7.6 and 3.8.2 respectively.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400 which categorizes unchecked resource consumption as a fundamental weakness in resource management. This weakness enables attackers to exhaust system resources through controlled inputs, leading to service availability disruption. From an attack framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to the denial of service category within the MITRE ATT&CK framework, specifically under the technique of resource exhaustion. The attack surface is limited to systems running affected Apache James versions and utilizing the JMAP protocol, making it a targeted vulnerability that requires specific conditions to be exploited successfully.
Organizations should prioritize immediate upgrade to the patched versions 3.7.6 or 3.8.2 to eliminate this vulnerability. System administrators should also implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual memory consumption patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. Additional mitigations include implementing rate limiting on JMAP endpoints, configuring memory limits for the James server processes, and deploying intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious HTML content patterns. Network segmentation and access controls should be reviewed to limit exposure of affected JMAP interfaces to trusted clients only. The fix addresses the underlying memory management issue by implementing proper bounds checking and resource allocation controls that prevent unbounded memory consumption during HTML processing operations.