CVE-2026-86040

libp2p: Unbounded RPC decode + synchronous subscription processing in @libp2p/floodsub allows unauthenticated DoS

State
Published
Severity
7.5 High
Published
Sep 17, 2026
Updated
Sep 17, 2026
Reserved
Sep 4, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

libp2p is a JavaScript implementation of the libp2p networking stack. Prior to 11.0.26, @libp2p/floodsub accepts unauthenticated RPC frames on /floodsub/1.0.0 through PeerStreams.attachInboundStream in packages/floodsub/src/peer-streams.ts without protobuf element limits, then processRpc and processRpcSubOpt in packages/floodsub/src/floodsub.ts synchronously process the subscriptions array without a per-frame cap. A single bounded-size frame can decode into millions of empty subscription entries that block the event loop, while hundreds of thousands of unique-topic SUBSCRIBE entries allocate PeerSet objects in this.topics that are not removed after peer removal or stop. Empty entries cause CPU exhaustion but do not grow this.topics; persistent memory growth requires unique topics. The subscription path bypasses message signature validation and the message-only processing queue, allowing a remote peer to cause sustained CPU denial of service, memory exhaustion, out-of-memory termination, and node unavailability. The issue is fixed in version 11.0.26.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.17.5 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HGitHub_M

Weaknesses

  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
  • CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

Affected Products

ProductVersions
js-libp2plibp2p
  • < 11.0.26Affected
floodsub@libp2p
  • < 11.0.26Affected

References

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