nats-server websockets are vulnerable to pre-auth memory DoS (nats-io nats-server)
At a glance
- Source
- NVD
- EPSS
- EPSS 0.54 % · percentile 46 ()
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Published
- Updated
- Assigner
- GitHub_M
- NVD status
- Analyzed
Description
NATS-Server is a High-Performance server for NATS.io, a cloud and edge native messaging system. The WebSockets handling of NATS messages handles compressed messages via the WebSockets negotiated compression. Prior to versions 2.11.2 and 2.12.3, the implementation bound the memory size of a NATS message but did not independently bound the memory consumption of the memory stream when constructing a NATS message which might then fail validation for size reasons. An attacker can use a compression bomb to cause excessive memory consumption, often resulting in the operating system terminating the server process. The use of compression is negotiated before authentication, so this does not require valid NATS credentials to exploit. The fix, present in versions 2.11.2 and 2.12.3, was to bounds the decompression to fail once the message was too large, instead of continuing on. The vulnerability only affects deployments which use WebSockets and which expose the network port to untrusted end-points.
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-409 — Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification)
- CWE-770 — Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
References
Scores
| Version | Score | Vector | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 5.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H | GitHub_M |
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 5.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H | NVD · security-advisories@github.com (Secondary) |
| CVSS 3.1 | HIGH 7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H | NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary) |
Advisories
- GHSA-qrvq-68c2-7grw — nats-server websockets are vulnerable to pre-auth memory DoS
- GO-2026-4533 — nats-server websockets are vulnerable to pre-auth memory DoS in github.com/nats-io/nats-server
European references
- ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-8538
- GCVE · GCVE-0-2026-27571
CERT-FR advisories
- CERTFR-2026-AVI-0339 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2026-AVI-0326 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2026-AVI-0316 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2026-AVI-0228 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits Microsoft · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
Affected configurations (NVD CPE)
cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:nats-server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*< 2.11.12cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:nats-server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*≥ 2.12.0 < 2.12.3
Affected products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
| nats-io · nats-server | affected < 2.11.12 ; affected >= 2.12.0-RC.1, < 2.12.3 |
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5) | CVE Program Terms of Use |
| EPSS (FIRST.org) | FIRST — attribution requested |
| ENISA EUVD | ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged |
| CERT-FR (ANSSI) | Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 |
| NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds | Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD |