CVE-2024-54677 in Tomcat
Summary
by MITRE • 12/17/2024
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in the examples web application provided with Apache Tomcat leads to denial of service.
This issue affects Apache Tomcat: from 11.0.0-M1 through 11.0.1, from 10.1.0-M1 through 10.1.33, from 9.0.0.M1 through 9.9.97.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 11.0.2, 10.1.34 or 9.0.98, which fixes the issue.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/08/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-54677 represents a critical uncontrolled resource consumption flaw within Apache Tomcat's example web application components. This issue manifests as a denial of service condition that can be exploited by malicious actors to consume excessive system resources, ultimately rendering the affected server unable to process legitimate requests. The vulnerability specifically targets the example applications bundled with Tomcat, which are often used for demonstration purposes but remain accessible in production environments, creating a significant attack surface. The affected versions span multiple major releases including Tomcat 11.0.0-M1 through 11.0.1, 10.1.0-M1 through 10.1.33, and 9.0.0.M1 through 9.9.97, indicating this is a widespread issue affecting the entire Tomcat ecosystem across its major version lines.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in improper resource management within the example web application code that handles incoming requests. When specific request patterns are processed through the vulnerable example applications, the system fails to implement adequate resource limits or cleanup mechanisms, leading to continuous consumption of memory, CPU cycles, or other system resources without proper bounds. This uncontrolled consumption can be triggered through carefully crafted requests that exploit the example application's handling of certain parameters or request methods. The flaw operates at the application layer rather than the infrastructure level, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited without requiring elevated privileges or system-level access. This vulnerability maps to CWE-400, which specifically addresses Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for Network Denial of Service attacks.
The operational impact of CVE-2024-54677 extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise entire application availability and system stability. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to perform sustained resource exhaustion attacks that may require system restarts or manual intervention to resolve. In production environments where Tomcat example applications remain accessible, this vulnerability creates a persistent risk of service degradation or complete outages. The impact is particularly severe in cloud environments or containerized deployments where resource limits are shared across multiple applications, as the excessive resource consumption can affect other services running on the same infrastructure. Organizations may experience cascading failures where the denial of service affects dependent systems or applications that rely on the vulnerable Tomcat instances.
Organizations should immediately implement the recommended mitigations by upgrading to the patched versions 11.0.2, 10.1.34, or 9.0.98, which contain the necessary code fixes to prevent uncontrolled resource consumption. Beyond upgrading, administrators should consider disabling or removing the example applications from production deployments, as these components are primarily intended for development and testing purposes. Network-level mitigations such as implementing rate limiting and request filtering can provide additional protection against exploitation attempts while maintaining the core Tomcat functionality. Security monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual resource consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of regularly updating application components and conducting security assessments to identify and remediate similar issues in other bundled applications or example code that may be accessible in production environments.