A server that faces a memory exhaustion situation can become unstable. The exact impact will depend on how the
affected application is deployed and how well the hosting server configuration is hardened.

In the worst case, when the application is deployed in an uncontained environment, directly on its host system, the
memory exhaustion will affect the whole hosting server. The server's operating system might start killing arbitrary
memory-intensive processes, including the main application or other sensitive ones. This will result in a general
operating failure, also known as a Denial of Service (DoS).

In cases where the application is deployed in a virtualized or otherwise contained environment, or where memory usage
limits are in place, the consequences are limited to the vulnerable application only. In that case, other processes and
applications hosted on the same server may keep on running without perturbation. The mainly affected application will
still stop working properly.

In general, that kind of DoS attack can have severe financial consequences. They are particularly important when the
affected systems are business-critical.