Weakness (CWE)
CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.
How to prevent it (8 mitigations)
-
Requirements
Clearly specify the minimum and maximum expectations for capabilities, and dictate which behaviors are acceptable when resource allocation reaches limits.
-
Architecture and Design
Limit the amount of resources that are accessible to unprivileged users. Set per-user limits for resources. Allow the system administrator to define these limits. Be careful to avoid CWE-410.
-
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place, and it will help the administrator to identify who is committing the abuse. The login application should be protected against DoS attacks as much as possible. Limiting the database access, perhaps by caching result sets, can help minimize the resources expended. To further limit the potential for a DoS attack, consider tracking the rate of requests received from users and blocking requests that exceed a defined rate threshold.
-
Implementation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, "boat" may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as "red" or "blue."
Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code's environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright.
-
Architecture and Design
For any security checks that are performed on the client side, ensure that these checks are duplicated on the server side, in order to avoid CWE-602. Attackers can bypass the client-side checks by modifying values after the checks have been performed, or by changing the client to remove the client-side checks entirely. Then, these modified values would be submitted to the server.
-
Architecture and Design
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
- recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, typically by using increasing time delays
- uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed.
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution can be difficult to effectively institute -- and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply requires more resources on the part of the attacker.
-
Architecture and Design
Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
-
Architecture and Design, Implementation
If the program must fail, ensure that it fails gracefully (fails closed). There may be a temptation to simply let the program fail poorly in cases such as low memory conditions, but an attacker may be able to assert control before the software has fully exited. Alternately, an uncontrolled failure could cause cascading problems with other downstream components; for example, the program could send a signal to a downstream process so the process immediately knows that a problem has occurred and has a better chance of recovery.
Ensure that all failures in resource allocation place the system into a safe posture.
Source: MITRE CWE-770
1,155 results · Clear filters · Feed
-
High 8.2
Apache Thrift: PHP `TJSONProtocol` string/number readers have no size bound
Allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability in Apache Thrift PHP bindings. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.25.0, which fixes the issue.
-
High 8.2
Apache Thrift: Node.js `TJSONProtocol` uses a peer-declared container size as an unbounded loop bound
Improper validation of specified quantity in input, Allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability in Apache Thrift nodejs bindings. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.25.0, which…
-
High 8.7
Apache Thrift: PHP `thrift_protocol` accelerator: zero-byte container elements
Improper validation of specified quantity in input, Allocation of resources without limits or throttling, Excessive Iteration vulnerability in Apache Thrift PHP bindings. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to ver…
-
High 8.2
Apache Thrift: Python `TJSONProtocol` has a string length limit that is off by default
Allocation of resources without limits or throttling, Initialization of a resource with an insecure default vulnerability in Apache Thrift Python bindings. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.25.0, wh…
-
High 8.2
Apache Thrift: Java `TSaslNonblockingServer`: residual of CVE-2026-61373 (thread-death black hole + no cross-connection budget)
improper handling of exceptional conditions, Allocation of resources without limits or throttling, Uncaught exception vulnerability in Apache Thrift Java bindings. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.…
-
High 8.7
Apache Thrift: Lua `TBinaryProtocol:readMessageBegin` bypasses `checkStringSize` on the pre-versioned name
Allocation of resources without limits or throttling, Improper handling of length parameter inconsistency vulnerability in Apache Thrift Lua bindings. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.25.0, which f…
-
High 7.1
Unbounded PBE iteration count when decrypting PKCS#8 private keys
Allocation of resources without limits in password-based private-key decryption (PbeUtilities.GenerateCipherParameters) in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-csharp before 2.7.0 allows an attacker who can supply an encrypted private key, such as a PKCS#8 Enc…
-
High 7.1
Unbounded MAC and bag-decryption iteration counts when loading PKCS#12 files
Allocation of resources without limits in PKCS#12 keystore loading (Pkcs12Store.Load) in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-csharp before 2.7.0 allows an attacker who can supply a PKCS#12 (PFX) file to cause a denial of service through CPU exhaustion via an …
-
High 8.7
Unbounded CMP/CRMF password-based MAC iteration count allows CPU exhaustion
Allocation of resources without limits or throttling in the CMP/CRMF password-based MAC verifier (PKMacBuilder) in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-csharp before 2.7.0 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service through CPU exhaus…
-
High 7.5
Mooncake transfer engine through 0.3.13.post1 Memory Exhaustion via Unbounded Notify Queue
Mooncake transfer engine through 0.3.13.post1 contains a memory exhaustion vulnerability in TransferMetadata::receivePeerNotify that allows unauthenticated attackers to grow process memory without limit. Attackers can repeatedly send notify frames up to 1 MB …
-
High 7.5
jackson-dataformats-binary: Smile parser does not enforce StreamReadConstraints.maxNameLength, enabling memory-exhaustion denial of service
The Smile parser in FasterXML jackson-dataformats-binary never invokes StreamReadConstraints.validateNameLength() when decoding JSON object property names, so the maxNameLength limit is not enforced for this format. SmileParser._handleLongFieldName() grows it…
-
High 7.5
jackson-dataformats-binary: CBOR parser does not enforce StreamReadConstraints.maxNameLength, enabling memory-exhaustion denial of service
The CBOR parser in FasterXML jackson-dataformats-binary never invokes StreamReadConstraints.validateNameLength() when decoding JSON object property names, so the maxNameLength limit is not enforced for this format. CBORParser._decodeLongerName() decodes a def…
-
High 8.2
Apache APISIX: Batch response aggregation can exhaust worker memory
Allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability in batch-requests plugin in Apache APISIX. An unauthenticated caller can drive a gateway worker into OOM via a route where the batch-requests plugin is used and the batch endpoint is publicly …
-
High 8.7
pypdf: Possible large memory usage when retrieving Roman page labels
pypdf is a free and open-source pure-python PDF library. Prior to 6.17.0, a crafted PDF can provide unusually large Roman page-label values that cause pypdf/_page_labels.py to generate excessively large numeral strings when an application retrieves document p…
-
High 7.5
restbed through 5.0.0 WebSocket Memory Exhaustion via Unbounded Frame Buffering
restbed through 5.0.0 accepts WebSocket frames with declared payload lengths up to 2^63 bytes and buffers the payload without size limits in an unbounded stream buffer. Remote unauthenticated attackers can declare large frame sizes and stream payload data to …
-
High 7.5
restbed through 5.0.0 Denial of Service via Unbounded Header Buffering
restbed through 5.0.0 buffers HTTP request headers without enforcing a maximum size limit, allowing remote unauthenticated attackers to exhaust server memory. Attackers can open TCP connections and stream bytes indefinitely without sending the header delimite…
-
High 7.5
Uncontrolled Memory Allocation in CODESYS Gateway Client
The CODESYS Gateway Client allocates memory based on a size field in a gateway response without enforcing an appropriate upper limit. An unauthenticated remote attacker controlling a malicious gateway can exploit this behavior to trigger excessive memory cons…
-
High 7.5
Apache MINA SSHD: Memory exhaustion in SFTP client via unsolicited SFTP replies
Possible memory exhaustion in SFTP clients (DefaultSftpClient) in component sshd-sftp in Apache MINA SSHD versions 0.9.0 to 2.19.0 and 3.0.0-M1 to 3.0.0-M5. Apache MINA SSHD is a Java library for client-side and server-side SSH. The sshd-sftp component provid…
-
High 8.7
Apache PLC4X, Apache PLC4X: Pre-authentication resource exhaustion in the OPC UA driver and the Java SPI parser
Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value, Allocation of Resources Without Limits, and Uncontrolled Recursion in the Java implementation of Apache PLC4X (PLC4J) allow a malicious or impersonated device to exhaust the memory or stack of the client applicatio…
-
High 8.6
Pexip Infinity before 41.0 is affected by improper input validation in the signaling implementation which allows a remo…
-
High 8.6
Pexip Infinity 30.0 through 40.x before 41.0 is affected by improper input validation in the web server that allows a m…
-
High 8.7
Fireware OS Resource Exhaustion in Login Process Allows Denial of Service
An uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in the Fireware OS login process (wgagent) allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service by sending a specially crafted request.
-
High 7.1
Fireware OS Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in Diagnostic Tasks Allows Denial of Service
An uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in Fireware OS's diagnostic tasks feature allows a low-privileged, authenticated user to cause a denial of service of the system's diagnostic tools by repeatedly starting and aborting a specially crafted diag…
-
High 7.5
LightLLM through 1.2.0 Unauthenticated Memory Exhaustion via NCCL Control Channel set_value
LightLLM through 1.2.0 contains a memory exhaustion vulnerability in the NCCL control channel when started with --pd_trans_mode nccl, allowing unauthenticated attackers to exhaust KV-transfer worker memory. Attackers can call the exposed_set_value method to s…
-
High 8.3
Unbounded DATA datagram in the NetX Duo TFTP server causes an out-of-bounds read and a permanent stall
In Eclipse ThreadX NetX Duo versions up to and including 6.5.2.202603, built with packet chaining, the TFTP server does not bound the length of a received DATA datagram. An unauthenticated peer can upload an oversized datagram that writes memory beyond the re…
-
High 8.9
urllib3: HTTPResponse.stream()/read_chunked() buffers an unbounded chunk-size line into memory
urllib3 is an HTTP client library for Python. From 1.10.3 until 2.8.0, the HTTPResponse.read_chunked and HTTPResponse.stream methods can allocate unbounded memory because the streaming chunk parser buffers the chunk-size field until newline or EOF without a l…
-
High 7.5
QUIC: Unbounded RETIRE_CONNECTION_ID Backlog
Issue summary: A malicious remote peer may flood the local QUIC stack with NEW_CONNECTION_ID frames by avoiding a limit check on how many connection IDs the remote QUIC stack can use. Impact summary: The local QUIC stack sends a RETIRE_CONN_ID frame for every…
-
High 7.5
QUIC STREAM Fragment Metadata DoS
Issue summary: QUIC process may keep memory for QUIC packet buffer for much longer period than necessary. Impact summary: Remote peer can exploit this vulnerability by sending maliciously crafted packets, making the local QUIC stack to keep the memory for pac…
-
High 8.2
HPACK-indexed cookie fields in Mint HTTP/2 responses bypass max_header_list_size and exhaust client memory
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in elixir-mint mint allows a malicious HTTP/2 server to exhaust memory on the client host and cause a denial of service. Mint.HTTP2 enforces the client's max_header_list_size setting only on t…
-
High 7.5
Netty before 4.2.18.Final QpackEncoder Unbounded Memory Retention
Netty's HTTP/3 codec (io.netty:netty-codec-http3) from 4.2.0.Final through 4.2.17.Final retains unbounded per-stream QPACK encoder state. QpackEncoder stores a queue and a dynamic-table index tracker for every encoded field section that references the QPACK d…
-
High 7.5
Apache Qpid Broker-J: Type size/count handling can lead to excessive allocation pre-authentication in the AMQP 0-10 decoder
A pre-authentication attacker could leverage type size/count handling to cause excessive allocation leading to potential denial of service. This issue affects Apache Qpid Broker-J: through 10.1.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 10.1.1, which fixe…
-
High 7.5
Wazuh Manager cluster header parsing allows pre-authentication memory exhaustion
Wazuh is an open-source security platform providing unified XDR and SIEM protection for endpoints and cloud workloads. From 3.9.0 until 4.14.7, wazuh-clusterd in framework/wazuh/core/cluster/common.py allocates a payload buffer using the size declared in a 20…
-
High 7.5
authentik: Denial of Service via Document Type Declarations in SAML Messages
authentik is an open-source identity provider. Prior to 2026.2.7, 2026.5.7, and 2026.8.2, an unauthenticated attacker can submit a malformed SAML message to an authentik deployment using SAML in either the identity-provider or SAML source role. The message ca…
-
High 7.5
hiredis commit 29ea279 (post-v1.5.0) contains an uncontrolled memory allocation vulnerability in its RESP aggregate par…
-
High 7.1
RabbitMQ: AMQP 0-9-1 body assembly never validates accumulated size
RabbitMQ is a messaging and streaming broker. Prior to versions 4.3.0, 4.2.6, 4.1.11, 4.0.20, and 3.13.15, The content-header BodySize (a uint64) was stored without validation against max_message_size. The size check ran only when assembly completed. By decla…
-
High 8.2
RabbitMQ: Pre-auth AMQP 1.0 array32 zero-width element DoS
RabbitMQ is a messaging and streaming broker. Prior to versions 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, and 4.2.6, parse_array_primitive/2 for constructor 0x45 (list0) returns an element with byte-width B = 0. The enclosing array32 parser at line 148 reads a 4-byte Count fr…
-
High 7.5
Klever-Go: Unauthenticated WebSocket /subscribe: no read-size limit, no connection cap, permissive origin -> remote node memory/goroutine exhaustion (DoS)
Klever-Go is the Go implementation of the Klever blockchain protocol. Prior to 1.7.20, the default-open GET /subscribe endpoint in network/api/websocket/routes.go accepts unauthenticated WebSocket clients with permissive origin handling, does not call SetRead…
-
High 7.5
Jawn: Uncontrolled nesting depth in JSON parser
Jawn is an open source JSON parser. Prior to 1.7.0, Jawn parse methods accept arbitrarily deep JSON array and object nesting without a depth limit, allowing a remote attacker who can submit untrusted JSON to grow parser contexts until the JVM heap is exhauste…
-
High 8.7
Moquette unbounded per-session message queues allow memory exhaustion
Moquette is a lightweight Java MQTT broker. Prior to 0.18.1, the broker does not enforce a maximum length for pending per-session message queues. When a fast publisher sends messages to a slow subscriber whose in-flight window is full, queued messages can acc…
-
High 7.1
Robur Albatross 1.0.0 through 2.x before 2.7.2 does not limit use of the ring buffer, leading to an albatross-console l…