CVE-2026-43967
Quadratic fragment-name uniqueness check causes denial of service in absinthe
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 8.7 High
- Published
- May 8, 2026
- Updated
- May 9, 2026
- Reserved
- May 4, 2026
Description
Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity vulnerability in absinthe-graphql absinthe allows unauthenticated denial of service via quadratic fragment-name uniqueness validation.
'Elixir.Absinthe.Phase.Document.Validation.UniqueFragmentNames':run/2 iterates over all fragments and for each one calls duplicate?/2, which evaluates Enum.count(fragments, &(&1.name == name)) — a full linear scan of the fragment list. The result is O(N²) comparisons per document, where N is the number of fragment definitions supplied by the caller.
Because input.fragments is built directly from the GraphQL query body, N is fully attacker-controlled. A minimum-size fragment definition is roughly 16 bytes, so a ~1 MB document carries ~60,000 fragments and forces ~3.6 × 10⁹ comparisons inside this single validation phase. No authentication, schema knowledge, or special configuration is required.
This issue affects absinthe: from 1.2.0 before 1.10.2.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | 8.7 High | 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 | EEF |
Weaknesses
- CWE-407 Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
absintheabsinthe-graphql |
|
absintheabsinthe-graphql |
|
References
- https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/security/advisories/GHSA-9mhv-8h52-q7q2vendor-advisoryrelated
- https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-43967.htmlrelated
- https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-43967related
- https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/commit/223600c520493dcaf95080af552c413099f92c9dpatch
Every record here comes from the CVE Program’s CVE List. © 1999–2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. The records are reproduced under the CVE Program terms of use.