CVE-2024-37294

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-37294 is a denial of service (DoS) vulnerability affecting the Aimeos open-source e-commerce framework. All SaaS and marketplace deployments using Aimeos versions from 2022, 2023, and 2024 are susceptible. The vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to cause resource exhaustion, leading to service unavailability. The CVSS score is 5.5 (Medium), and the EPSS probability is 0.0%, indicating low active exploitation in the wild. No public proof-of-concept (PoC) code or exploit is currently available. The vendor has released patches for the affected versions.

Supply Chain & Package Security

Aimeos is a PHP-based e-commerce framework distributed via Composer. The vulnerability exists in the aimeos/aimeos-core package. Organizations using Aimeos in a SaaS or marketplace context should immediately verify their dependency version and apply the patch. Since no public exploit exists, the primary risk is from targeted attacks or future disclosure of exploit details.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
• Base Score: 5.5 (Medium)
• Attack Vector: Network (AV:N) – The vulnerability can be exploited remotely.
• Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L) – No special conditions are required.
• Privileges Required: None (PR:N) – No authentication needed.
• User Interaction: None (UI:N) – No user action is required.
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U) – The impact is confined to the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality Impact: None (C:N) – No data exposure.
• Integrity Impact: None (I:N) – No data modification.
• Availability Impact: Low (A:L) – Service degradation or denial of service.

Threat Level: Medium. The lack of public exploit and low EPSS score reduce immediate risk, but the potential for DoS in a critical e-commerce platform warrants prompt patching.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability is a classic resource exhaustion (CWE-400) issue. In Aimeos SaaS and marketplace setups, certain API endpoints or processing routines do not properly limit resource consumption when handling unauthenticated requests. An attacker can send a crafted request that triggers excessive memory allocation, CPU usage, or file descriptor consumption, leading to service degradation or complete denial of service.

The exact vulnerable component is not publicly detailed, but it likely involves a function that processes user-supplied data without proper bounds checking or rate limiting. For example, a search endpoint that accepts large payloads or a file upload handler that does not enforce size limits could be exploited.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no specific code snippet is available, the following is a hypothetical example illustrating the vulnerability:

Vulnerable Code (PHP):

public function processRequest($request) {
    $data = $request->getContent(); // No size limit
    $this->processData($data); // Could cause memory exhaustion
}

Patched Code:

public function processRequest($request) {
    $data = $request->getContent();
    if (strlen($data) > 1024 * 1024) { // 1 MB limit
        throw new \RuntimeException('Request too large');
    }
    $this->processData($data);
}

The patch introduces input validation and resource limits to prevent abuse.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Adversarial Simulation)

Since no public exploit exists, a red team would need to reverse-engineer the vulnerable component. A typical approach involves:

1. Reconnaissance: Identify Aimeos instances using Shodan dorks (aimeos, aimeos-core).
2. Fuzzing: Send large payloads to common endpoints (e.g., /search, /api/products, /file/upload).
3. Resource Monitoring: Observe server response times and error messages to confirm DoS.

Example curl command to test for resource exhaustion:

curl -X POST https://target.com/api/search -d "$(python3 -c 'print("A"*10000000)')"

Blue Team (Defensive Measures)

• Rate Limiting: Implement per-IP rate limiting on all API endpoints.
• Input Validation: Enforce maximum request size and complexity.
• Monitoring: Set up alerts for unusual CPU/memory spikes.
• WAF Rules: Block requests exceeding a certain size.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network: Unusually large HTTP POST requests (>10 MB) to Aimeos endpoints.
• System: High CPU or memory usage on the web server without corresponding legitimate traffic.
• Logs: PHP error logs showing memory exhaustion errors (e.g., Allowed memory size of X bytes exhausted).
• File: Temporary files in /tmp with large sizes created by PHP.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2024_37294_Aimeos_DoS {
    meta:
        description = "Detects potential DoS attempts against Aimeos e-commerce framework"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2024-37294"
    strings:
        $php_error = /Allowed memory size of \d+ bytes exhausted/
        $large_post = /POST \/.* HTTP\/1\.1.*Content-Length: [5-9]\d{6,}/
    condition:
        $php_error or $large_post
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2024-37294 Aimeos DoS Attempt
id: 8a4b3c2d-1e5f-4a7b-9c8d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
status: experimental
description: Detects large HTTP POST requests targeting Aimeos endpoints
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: POST
        cs-uri-query|contains: 
            - '/api/'
            - '/search'
            - '/file/upload'
        sc-bytes|gte: 10000000
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate large file uploads (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2024-37294 Aimeos DoS Attempt"; flow:to_server; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/api/"; http_uri; content:"Content-Length"; http_header; pcre:"/Content-Length:\s*[5-9]\d{6,}/"; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

1. Immediate Patch: Upgrade aimeos/aimeos-core to version 2022.10.17, 2023.10.17, or 2024.04.
2. Workaround: If patching is not possible, implement a web application firewall (WAF) rule to block requests with Content-Length > 10 MB.
3. Rate Limiting: Use tools like mod_evasive (Apache) or ngx_http_limit_req_module (Nginx) to limit request rates.
4. Monitoring: Enable logging of all POST requests and monitor for anomalies.
5. Backup: Ensure recent backups are available in case of service disruption.

Valters IT
DevSecOps & Cyber Threat Intelligence Expert