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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2026-21452 json

MessagePack-Java Vulnerable to Remote Denial of Service via Malicious .msgpack Model File Triggering Unbounded EXT Payload Allocation

published 2026-01-02 10 mo ago modified 2026-09-10 1 mo ago also GHSA-cw39-r4h6-8j3x , EUVD-2026-0750

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 49%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

MessagePack for Java is a serializer implementation for Java. A denial-of-service vulnerability exists in versions prior to 0.9.11 when deserializing .msgpack files containing EXT32 objects with attacker-controlled payload lengths. While MessagePack-Java parses extension headers lazily, it later trusts the declared EXT payload length when materializing the extension data. When ExtensionValue.getData() is invoked, the library attempts to allocate a byte array of the declared length without enforcing any upper bound. A malicious .msgpack file of only a few bytes can therefore trigger unbounded heap allocation, resulting in JVM heap exhaustion, process termination, or service unavailability. This vulnerability is triggered during model loading / deserialization, making it a model format vulnerability suitable for remote exploitation. The vulnerability enables a remote denial-of-service attack against applications that deserialize untrusted .msgpack model files using MessagePack for Java. A specially crafted but syntactically valid .msgpack file containing an EXT32 object with an attacker-controlled, excessively large payload length can trigger unbounded memory allocation during deserialization. When the model file is loaded, the library trusts the declared length metadata and attempts to allocate a byte array of that size, leading to rapid heap exhaustion, excessive garbage collection, or immediate JVM termination with an OutOfMemoryError. The attack requires no malformed bytes, user interaction, or elevated privileges and can be exploited remotely in real-world environments such as model registries, inference services, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-based model hosting platforms that accept or fetch .msgpack artifacts. Because the malicious file is extremely small yet valid, it can bypass basic validation and scanning mechanisms, resulting in complete service unavailability and potential cascading failures in production systems. Version 0.9.11 fixes the vulnerability.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.msgpack:msgpack-core 0.9.11

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
10 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.60% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 49% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-java/security/advisories/GHSA-cw39-r4h6-8j3x referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.msgpack:msgpack-core
<0.9.11
0.9.11

Affected products

  • msgpack msgpack-java

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
  • CWE-789 Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value

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.