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)
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Requirements
Clearly specify the minimum and maximum expectations for capabilities, and dictate which behaviors are acceptable when resource allocation reaches limits.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Architecture and Design
Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
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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
1,164 results · Clear filters · Feed
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Medium 5.3
Hatchet through 0.110.5 Unauthenticated Memory Exhaustion via SNS Ingestion Endpoint
Hatchet through 0.110.5 contains an allocation of resources without limits vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to exhaust memory via the SNS ingestion endpoint. Attackers can send arbitrarily large or concurrent request bodies to POST /api/v1/…
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Medium 5.3
Contao: The registration module re-sends activation mails on any unauthenticated POST, with no throttle and no captcha check
Contao is an Open Source CMS. From version 4.1.0 until 5.3.50 and 5.7.12, ModuleRegistration::compile() enters its follow-up registration branch on any POST to a page containing the registration module without verifying FORM_SUBMIT or the preceding captcha re…
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Medium 5.3
Ops Manager Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in Monitoring Endpoints
An unauthenticated user with network access to the Ops Manager web port can repeatedly request monitoring endpoints that perform costly work without rate limiting. This can temporarily slow other traffic served by the same process while requests continue.
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Medium 6.5
Security vulnerabilities have been found in IBM Verify Identity Access and IBM Security Verify Access
IBM Security Verify Access 10.0 through 10.0.9.2 and IBM Verify Identity Access 11.0 through 11.0.3 could allow an authenticated user to cause a denial of service using a specially crafted HTTP query due to improper allocation of system resources
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Medium 6.3
amqp091-go: Pre-negotiation frame limit is not enforced to 4KB
amqp091-go is a Go AMQP 0.9.1 client. From 1.13.0 until 1.14.0, the frame-size mitigation from the prior allocation advisory can be bypassed before connection.tune completes because Connection.maxFrameSize uses zero for both the not-yet-negotiated and negotia…
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Medium 6.5
enshrined/svg-sanitize: Denial of Service via DTD Attribute Declaration Crash
savg-sanitizer is a PHP SVG/XML sanitizer. Prior to 1.0.0, svg-sanitizer allows a crafted SVG DTD with a #FIXED attribute default to make cleanAttributesOnWhitelist() perform a double DOMElement::removeAttribute() call on the same attribute name in src/Saniti…
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Medium 6.5
Pydantic AI: Unbounded memory use when downloading remote content via web_fetch or FileUrl
Pydantic AI is a Python agent framework for building applications and workflows with Generative AI. From 1.77.0 until 1.107.2 and 2.24.0, web_fetch_tool, the WebFetch local fallback, and remote FileUrl media downloads buffer the complete HTTP response body be…
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Medium 4.3
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in hMailServer
Uncontrolled eviction in the browser session table of the REST API in Progressive Robot hMailServer 6.2.28 through 6.3.5 allows a remote authenticated user to end other users' sessions. The table of browser sessions, shared by every account, the server admini…
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Medium 5.3
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in hMailServer
Uncontrolled eviction in the pending sign-in tables of the REST API in Progressive Robot hMailServer 6.3.4 and 6.3.5 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to make other users' OpenID Connect, SAML and passkey sign-ins fail. The routes that start a single s…
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Medium 6.5
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in GitLab
GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 11.7 before 18.8.9, 18.9 before 18.9.5, and 18.10 before 18.10.3 that when importing CSV files could have allowed an authenticated user to cause denial of service to Sidekiq workers du…
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Medium 5.8
Cisco NX-OS Software Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to exhaust system resources, causing a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability exists because rate limiting was improperly applied to some protocols. An atta…
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Medium 5.3
Open5GS GTP-U Receive Path gtp-path.c ogs_pfcp_xact_local_create allocation of resources
A weakness has been identified in Open5GS up to 2.7.7. This vulnerability affects the function ogs_pfcp_xact_local_create of the file src/upf/gtp-path.c of the component GTP-U Receive Path. This manipulation causes allocation of resources. The attack is possi…
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Medium 5.3
ImageMagick: Denial of service in ASE decoder because of missing security checks
ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to 7.1.2-32, missing validation and resource checks in the ASE decoder allow a crafted ASE image to cause a crash or a long-running operation. This issue is f…
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Medium 5.5
Sssd: sssd-kcm: local denial of service via excessive memory preallocation
A flaw was found in `sssd-kcm`. A local user or process able to connect to the `sssd-kcm` UNIX socket can exploit this vulnerability. By sending a large request length header and then stalling the connection, an attacker can cause the system to preallocate si…
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Medium 6.2
Sssd: sssd: denial of service via incomplete identity provider authentication requests
A flaw was found in SSSD (System Security Services Daemon). When Identity Provider (IdP) authentication is enabled, pre-authentication requests retain state in memory without being cleared or timed out. A local attacker can repeatedly initiate authentication …
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Medium 5.3
yawkat LZ4 Java: LZ4FrameInputStream reallocates block buffers for every frame, allowing CPU and GC amplification from small inputs
yawkat LZ4 Java provides LZ4 compression for Java. Prior to 1.11.4, net.jpountz.lz4.LZ4FrameInputStream readHeader() allocates two new 4 MiB block buffers whenever a maximum-block-size frame header is read, and the default concatenated-frame mode allows attac…
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Medium 6.5
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in Elasticsearch Leading to Denial of Service
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) in Elasticsearch can lead to Denial of Service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). Elasticsearch enforces a size limit on the user-supplied metadata field for each individual template resource, …
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Medium 6.9
Denial-of-service vulnerability in ESET PROTECT On-Prem
Allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability in ESET PROTECT On-Prem increased resource consumption (CPU and RAM), leading to conditions for a Denial-of-Service attack.
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Medium 6.5
WordPress WPBase Cache plugin <= 5.5.6 - Denial of Service Attack vulnerability
Subscriber Denial of Service Attack in WPBase Cache <= 5.5.6 versions.
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Medium 5.5
Sssd: sssd: denial of service via unbounded negative cache growth
A flaw was found in SSSD. An unprivileged local user can repeatedly request lookups for nonexistent entries through the Name Service Switch (NSS) responder. Because the negative cache does not limit the total number of stored entries and only removes expired …
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Medium 5.3
vLLM: Qwen2-VL / Qwen3-VL video samplers bound on request-controlled max_frames, which the num_frames ceiling does not reach
vLLM is an inference and serving engine for large language models. From 0.24.0 until 0.30.0, the Qwen2VLVideoBackend and Qwen3VLVideoBackend classes accept request-level values for the media_io_kwargs.video.max_frames and media_io_kwargs.video.fps fields with…
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Medium 4.3
Docling: METS-GBS archive member limit enforced after full member enumeration (memory exhaustion during format detection)
Docling simplifies document processing by parsing diverse formats and providing integrations with the generative AI ecosystem. From 2.45.0 until 2.131.0, METS-GBS format detection in docling/datamodel/document.py and the backend in docling/backend/mets_gbs_ba…
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Medium 5.3
Penpot: Repeated chunk index causes temporary-storage amplification
Penpot is an open-source design and prototyping platform. Prior to 2.18.0, the chunked media upload RPC validates that a chunk index is in range but neither rejects an already stored index nor replaces its previous object. An authenticated user can repeatedly…
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Medium 6.5
Apache Struts: Unbounded request body read in the REST plugin
Allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability in the Apache Struts REST plugin. A request body is read into memory without any bound on how much will be accepted, so a single request can cause the server to allocate memory in proportion t…
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Medium 5.4
Plane: Improper validation allows arbitrary modification of API token rate limits
Plane is an open-source project management tool. Prior to 1.4.0, GET /api/users/api-tokens/ allows an authenticated user to retrieve API-token records, while PATCH /api/users/api-tokens/{token_id}/ allows the user to modify the token's allowed_rate_limit fiel…
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Medium 5.3
LaraDashboard 1.4.2 before 1.4.8 Resource Exhaustion via Password Recovery Endpoints
LaraDashboard 1.4.2 before 1.4.8 applies advanced email validation to unauthenticated forgot-password and reset-password requests, triggering DNS lookups and paid AbstractAPI verification calls. Unauthenticated attackers can submit arbitrary addresses to exha…
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Medium 5.3
Legacy PBES1 and PKCS#12 PBE iteration count honoured unbounded in the raw JCA provider
In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the raw JCA provider's legacy PBES1 (PKCS#5 scheme 1) and PKCS#12 PBE families ran their password-based key derivation with an iteration count taken from untrusted input without bounding it, so a small input could dictat…
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Medium 6.9
Apache Thrift: C++ THeaderTransport does not enforce configured maxFrameSize
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling, Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in Apache Thrift C++ bindings. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.…
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Medium 6.9
Apache Thrift: Buffered transport reads are not accounted against MaxMessageSize
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in Apache Thrift Delphi bindings buffered transport. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.25.0, which fixes the issue.
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Medium 6.3
Apache Thrift: PHP `thrift_protocol` C extension ignores the configured `maxStringSize`
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.
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Medium 5.3
Zebra before 6.0.0-rc.0 Per-Peer Mempool Admission Bypass via P2P tx Messages
Zebra (zebrad) 5.0.0 before 6.0.0-rc.0 does not apply its per-peer mempool admission cap to transactions received as direct P2P tx messages, because these are queued without the sending peer recorded as their source. A remote inbound peer can push many unique…
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Medium 5.3
Password-based KDF cost parameters honoured unbounded from untrusted input across the remaining PBE entry points
In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, several password-based key derivation entry points ran the KDF with cost parameters taken from the untrusted input being processed, without bounding them, so a small input could dictate an arbitrary amount of work before…
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Medium 5.3
Tornado before 6.5.9 Denial of Service via Query String
Tornado before 6.5.9 fails to limit the number of query string fields in HTTPServerRequest.__init__, allowing remote attackers to cause event-loop stalling by sending requests with thousands of query parameters. Attackers can send unauthenticated GET requests…
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Medium 6.5
OpenClaw Windows Node before 2026.7.1 Denial of Service
OpenClaw Windows Node before 2026.7.1 contains an allocation of resources without limits vulnerability in the gateway WebSocket transport that allows connected gateways to exhaust node memory. Attackers can send an unending sequence of WebSocket continuation …
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Medium 6.5
In JetBrains YouTrack before 2026.2.19197 project Admin could trigger DoS via a notification template
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Medium 6.5
Nest: Unbounded memory growth in the NestJS TCP microservice transport
## Summary A peer that can open a TCP connection to a NestJS microservice using the built-in TCP transport can make the server process allocate memory without limit, on either side of the connection, until the process is killed by the OS or by its container m…
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Medium 5.3
WordPress Two Factor plugin <= 0.16.0 - Denial of Service Attack vulnerability
Unauthenticated Denial of Service Attack in Two Factor <= 0.16.0 versions.
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Medium 5.9
WordPress WP Store Locator plugin < 3.0.0 - Denial of Service Attack vulnerability
Unauthenticated Denial of Service Attack in WP Store Locator < 3.0.0 versions.
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Medium 6.5
Apache MINA SSHD: Memory exhaustion DoS via unbounded SCP command line read
Uncontrolled resource consumption in component ssd-scp in Apache MINA SSHD versions up to 2.19.0 or 3.0.0-M1 to 3.0.0-M5. Apache MINA SSHD is a Java library for client-side and server-side SSH. Component sshd-scp of Apache MINA SSHD provides a Java implementa…
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Medium 6.5
Apache MINA SSHD: Memory exhaustion in SFTP v6 check-file-name/check-file-handle extension
Server-side memory exhaustion in Apache MINA SSHD 1.0.0 to 2.19.0 and 3.0.0-M1 to 3.0.0-M5, component sshd-sftp, in the SFTP v6 check-file-name/check-file-handle extension. Apache MINA SSHD is a Java library for client-side and server-side SSH. Using a very s…