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Fencer Vulns
high 8.9

CVE-2026-118391 json

Unbounded query cache growth from interpolated JSON paths and splice lists in Ecto

published 2026-11-04 4 d ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EEF-CVE-2026-118391 , GHSA-cxjx-vmm2-qr8r , EUVD-2026-116912

cvss
8.9
version 4.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 42%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in elixir-ecto ecto allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to exhaust memory in the application and in the database server by sending requests with distinct JSON keys or list lengths where the application interpolates them into json_extract_path/2, field[^key] or splice/1. Ecto caches prepared queries per repository in an ETS table with no size limit and no eviction. Interpolated JSON path elements become part of the query expression instead of its parameters, and splice/1 expands into one placeholder per element, so every distinct key or list length creates a new cache entry. With ecto_sql each entry is also a new prepared statement on the database connection that runs it. None of this memory is released until the processes restart.

This issue affects ecto: from 3.4.0 before 3.14.3.

Patch / fix

  • hex ecto 3.14.3
  • elixir-ecto ecto 3.14.3

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
4 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.49% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 42% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 8.9 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H
CNA 4.0 8.9 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
hex ecto
>=3.4.0, <3.14.3
3.14.3

Affected products

  • elixir-ecto ecto

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns 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.