CVE-2024-7036: Open WebUI unauthenticated DoS

CISO Take

Any open-webui deployment at v0.3.8 or earlier with public registration enabled can have its admin panel permanently disabled by a single unauthenticated HTTP request. Upgrade immediately or disable open registration and restrict admin panel access to trusted networks only. The critical risk is administrative paralysis during an incident: if exploited, you cannot revoke compromised user accounts from your AI platform.

What is the risk?

HIGH operational risk despite low EPSS (0.00485). Zero prerequisites for exploitation—no authentication, no credentials, no AI/ML knowledge required. The real danger is governance paralysis: if triggered during a security incident, administrators lose the ability to revoke access for any user on the platform. Exposure is amplified by open-webui's widespread adoption as a self-hosted LLM frontend in enterprise and research environments.

What systems are affected?

Package	Ecosystem	Vulnerable Range	Patched
Open WebUI	pip	<= 0.3.8	No patch
142.4K Pushed 4d ago 77% patched ~5d to patch Full package profile →

Do you use Open WebUI? You're affected.

How severe is it?

CVSS 3.1

7.5 / 10

EPSS

0.8%

chance of exploitation in 30 days

Higher than 52% of all CVEs

Source: EPSS v3 — FIRST.org

Exploitation Status

Exploit Available

Exploitation: MEDIUM

Sophistication

Trivial

Exploitation Confidence

medium

○ CISA SSVC: Public PoC

Composite signal derived from CISA KEV, VulnCheck KEV, CISA SSVC, EPSS, Metasploit, Exploit-DB, trickest/cve, Nuclei templates, and inthewild.io exploitation reports.

What is the attack surface?

AV Network

AC Low

PR None

UI None

S Unchanged

C None

I None

A High

What should I do?

6 steps

Upgrade open-webui to the latest available version beyond 0.3.8.
As immediate workaround, disable open registration and require admin-issued invites only.
Restrict the admin panel to internal/VPN-only access via reverse proxy (nginx/Caddy deny rules).
Deploy WAF rule to reject registration requests where the name field exceeds 255 characters.
Monitor for anomalous large POST payloads to the signup endpoint (threshold alert: payload > 10KB).
Audit existing user accounts before patching to identify any accounts created exploitatively during exposure window.

What does CISA's SSVC say?

Decision Track*

Exploitation poc

Automatable Yes

Technical Impact partial

Source: CISA Vulnrichment (SSVC v2.0). Decision based on the CISA Coordinator decision tree.

How is it classified?

DoS Framework API AML.T0021 - Establish Accounts AML.T0029 - Denial of AI Service AML.T0049 - Exploit Public-Facing Application

Which compliance frameworks are affected?

This CVE is relevant to:

EU AI Act

Article 15 - Accuracy, robustness and cybersecurity

ISO 42001

A.6.2 - AI system security and access control

NIST AI RMF

MANAGE-2.2 - Mechanisms are in place to sustain AI system security and resilience

OWASP LLM Top 10

LLM04 - Model Denial of Service

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2024-7036?

Any open-webui deployment at v0.3.8 or earlier with public registration enabled can have its admin panel permanently disabled by a single unauthenticated HTTP request. Upgrade immediately or disable open registration and restrict admin panel access to trusted networks only. The critical risk is administrative paralysis during an incident: if exploited, you cannot revoke compromised user accounts from your AI platform.

Is CVE-2024-7036 actively exploited?

No confirmed active exploitation of CVE-2024-7036 has been reported, but organizations should still patch proactively.

How to fix CVE-2024-7036?

1. Upgrade open-webui to the latest available version beyond 0.3.8. 2. As immediate workaround, disable open registration and require admin-issued invites only. 3. Restrict the admin panel to internal/VPN-only access via reverse proxy (nginx/Caddy deny rules). 4. Deploy WAF rule to reject registration requests where the name field exceeds 255 characters. 5. Monitor for anomalous large POST payloads to the signup endpoint (threshold alert: payload > 10KB). 6. Audit existing user accounts before patching to identify any accounts created exploitatively during exposure window.

What systems are affected by CVE-2024-7036?

This vulnerability affects the following AI/ML architecture patterns: LLM web frontends, AI chat interfaces, model serving UIs, multi-user AI platforms.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2024-7036?

CVE-2024-7036 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH). The EPSS exploitation probability is 0.80%.

What is the AI security impact?

Affected AI Architectures

LLM web frontendsAI chat interfacesmodel serving UIsmulti-user AI platforms

MITRE ATLAS Techniques

AML.T0021 Establish Accounts

AML.T0029 Denial of AI Service

AML.T0049 Exploit Public-Facing Application

Compliance Controls Affected

EU AI Act: Article 15

ISO 42001: A.6.2

NIST AI RMF: MANAGE-2.2

OWASP LLM Top 10: LLM04

What are the technical details?

Original Advisory

A vulnerability in open-webui/open-webui v0.3.8 allows an unauthenticated attacker to sign up with excessively large text in the 'name' field, causing the Admin panel to become unresponsive. This prevents administrators from performing essential user management actions such as deleting, editing, or adding users. The vulnerability can also be exploited by authenticated users with low privileges, leading to the same unresponsive state in the Admin panel.

Exploitation Scenario

Attacker discovers an exposed open-webui instance via Shodan or Censys using open-webui HTTP fingerprints. They send a single HTTP POST to /api/v1/auths/signup with a name field containing several megabytes of text—requiring zero authentication. The server processes the oversized payload, causing the admin panel to become permanently unresponsive. If the attacker previously created a low-privilege account (also unauthenticated), that account persists with ongoing LLM access while administrators are locked out of user management. The attacker may use this as a persistence mechanism: first create a malicious account, then trigger the DoS to prevent admin revocation.

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption Primary

CWE-400 — Uncontrolled Resource Consumption: The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

[Architecture and Design] Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place. The login application should be protected against DoS attacks as much as possible. Limiting the database access, perhaps by caching result sets, can help minimize the resources expended. To further limit the potential for a DoS attack, consider tracking the rate of requests received from users and blocking requests that exceed a defined rate threshold.
[Architecture and Design] Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question. The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute -- and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker. recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed.

Source: MITRE CWE corpus.