GHSA-hjr9-wj7v-7hv8 json
Sliver Vulnerable to Pre-Auth Memory Exhaustion via NoEncoder Bypass
published 10mo ago modified 8mo ago also GO-2026-4280
- cvss
- —
- not scored
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- —
- no score, EPSS covers CVEs only
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
### Summary A specially crafted nonce routes unauthenticated requests through the NoEncoder path, where `startSessionHandler()` reads the entire request body without limits, allowing attacker-driven memory exhaustion and process crash.
### Details - `server/encoders/encoders.go`: `EncoderFromNonce()` returns NoEncoder when `nonce % 65537 == 0` (lines 254-264); NoEncoder is a passthrough (`util/encoders/nop.go:22-32`). - `server/c2/http.go`: `anonymousHandler()` routes requests with any encoder (including NoEncoder) to `startSessionHandler()` (lines 551-562). - `server/c2/http.go`: `startSessionHandler()` uses `io.ReadAll(req.Body)` without a size cap (lines 564-643), unlike the authenticated path that uses `io.LimitedReader` (`readReqBody()`, lines 708-732).
### PoC An attacker could send an HTTP POST with a nonce that is a multiple of 65537 (e.g., ?q=65537) so it is handled by startSessionHandler() with a NoEncoder, and advertise a very large Content-Length while streaming data. Because this handler uses io.ReadAll(req.Body) without a size limit, the server is expected to allocate large amounts of memory and may exhaust available RAM, leading to process termination on typical deployments.
### Impact Unauthenticated remote DoS: attacker can crash the Sliver HTTP listener, dropping all active sessions and locking out operators until restart. No credentials or non-default config required.
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Check with FencerAffected packages
| ecosystem | package | affected | fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| go | github.com/bishopfox/sliver | >=1.5.0, <=1.5.44 >=1.5.0 |
no fix listed |
Classification
- Weakness
-
- CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
References
Sources
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-hjr9-wj7v-7hv8
- OSV GO-2026-4280
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