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Fencer Intel
medium 5.9

CVE-2026-123868 json

Node.js is vulnerable to an HTTP/2 memory exhaustion denial of service via unaccounted inbound DATA on an undrained stream

published 16h ago modified 15h ago also EUVD-2026-123691

cvss
5.9
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
—
no EPSS score yet
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An unauthenticated HTTP/2 client can exhaust Node.js server memory because inbound DATA queued on an undrained stream is charged to no session budget. Each inbound DATA frame creates one JavaScript Buffer view in the receiving stream's readable queue, but nothing charges that queue to current_session_memory_: the socket read buffer is accounted only during parsing and released immediately, so whatever stays queued is accounted to nothing. A peer that fills a stream's receive window with one-byte DATA frames pays about 10 wire bytes per frame while the server retains about 114 bytes per frame, so a single stream on one connection can retain hundreds of megabytes from tens of megabytes sent. maxSessionMemory neither bounds the growth nor refuses new streams, because Http2Session::CanAddStream gates admission on the same counter that never sees the queue. This vulnerability affects Node.js 26.x and 24.x.

Patch / fix

  • nodejs node 24.22.3, 26.13.1
  • nodejs Alpine 3.22, Alpine 3.21 22.23.5-r0
  • nodejs Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23 24.22.3-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2026-123868

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-123868 updated cvss 5.9

nodejs: nodejs: Denial of service via HTTP/2 memory exhaustion

  • Red Hat Hardened Images nodejs25 25.9.0-1.7.hum1, nodejs20 20.20.2-1.3.hum1, nodejs24 24.22.2-0.2.hum1, nodejs26 26.13.0-0.1.1.hum1, nodejs22 22.23.4-2.3.2.3.1.hum1
    affected: workaround, no fix available, no fix planned “Will not fix”

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 5.9 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • nodejs node

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.