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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2026-86040 json

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

published 2026-09-17 53 d ago modified 2026-09-24 45 d ago also EUVD-2026-81688

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 52%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

  • protocol libp2p 11.0.26

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-86040 updated cvss 7.5

floodsub: floodsub: Denial of Service via unbounded RPC subscription processing

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
52 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.67% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 52% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

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

Affected products

  • libp2p js-libp2p
  • @libp2p floodsub

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
  • CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
  • 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.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.