Advisories

ws < 8.21.1 Default maxFragments Allows Memory Exhaustion DoS

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severity
high
date
Affecting
  • ws < 8.21.1

CWE
  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
CVSS
8.7
CVSS V4 Vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Credit
George Chen
Description
ws before 8.21.1 contains a memory exhaustion vulnerability in lib/receiver.js where the fragment guard only triggers when fragment count reaches maxFragments, allowing attackers to exhaust memory by sending incomplete fragmented WebSocket messages. Attackers can send a text frame with FIN=0 followed by continuation frames without completing the sequence, causing each fragment to be stored as a separate Buffer object with significant overhead, enabling denial of service through heap exhaustion.

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