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
2,479 results · Feed
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High 8.7
Unbounded decoded HTTP/2 header-list size in cowlib cow_http2_machine enables HPACK amplification memory exhaustion
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows an unauthenticated remote peer to exhaust the memory of an HTTP/2 endpoint via HPACK-indexed header fields. cow_http2_machine:headers_decode/4 in src/cow_http2_machi…
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Low 3.1
In JetBrains YouTrack before 2026.2.19728 the attachment size limit could be bypassed via AI assistant thread conversion
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Medium 5.3
Vulnerability-Lookup: memory amplification through webhook payload template format specifiers
In Vulnerability-Lookup 5.5.1 up to but not including 6.4.1, a signed-in user could make the server allocate memory far out of proportion to their input through a webhook notification's payload template. Each placeholder's format specifier was passed unchange…
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High 7.5
HTTP::Body versions before 1.24_02 for Perl parse the trailer in quadratic time
HTTP::Body versions before 1.24_02 for Perl parse the trailer in quadratic time. Everything after the last chunk in the same call to add() is parsed with HTTP::Headers, which takes time quadratic in the number of fields of one name. For example, it takes seve…
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Medium 5.5
Gstreamer1-plugins-good: gstreamer: missing subindex entry count validation in avidemux leading to denial of service
A flaw was found in GStreamer gst-plugins-good (avidemux). In the subindex parser, missing validation of the entry count can cause excessive memory allocation and denial of service. Because avidemux is auto-plugged by playbin, decodebin, and gst-discoverer, o…
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High 7.5
Regexp2: Unbounded memory amplification via large `{m}` quantifier on a zero-width subexpression
Regexp2 is a feature-rich RegExp engine for Go. Prior to version 2.3.0, when regexp2 compiles and matches a pattern containing a large fixed-count quantifier applied to a zero-width subexpression — e.g. (?:){50000000} — the match engine executes the empty loo…
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High 7.5
Model Context Protocol TypeScript SDK: One HTTP request within the default size limit could exhaust server memory during validation
The Model Context Protocol TypeScript SDK provides TypeScript client and server implementations of the Model Context Protocol. From 1.3.0 until 1.32.0 in @modelcontextprotocol/sdk and from 2.0.0 until 2.3.0 in @modelcontextprotocol/server, HTTP servers did no…
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High 8.2CVE-2026-77622 Public exploit
Sliver: Unauthenticated Memory Exhaustion Denial of Service in Sliver HTTP(S) Listener PNG Decoder
Sliver is a command and control framework. Prior to 1.7.6, an HTTP(S) listener using the PNG encoder accepts attacker-controlled PNG dimensions without an effective decoded-size or pixel limit in util/encoders/images.go, while the listener nonce space impleme…
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Medium 6.3
Pillow: EPS load(scale) lets Ghostscript render past the decompression bomb limit
Pillow is a Python imaging library. In versions 2.3.0 through 12.3.0, EPS rendering does not validate the scaled image dimensions before invoking Ghostscript. Applications that process untrusted EPS or PostScript files using an application-selected scale grea…
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High 7.7
OpenHuman: Unauthenticated dictation WebSocket allows arbitrary audio streaming and unbounded memory growth
OpenHuman is an open-source agent harness available as a desktop application and Rust library. Before version 0.57.44, its local /ws/dictation WebSocket endpoint lacks client authentication and browser-origin validation. An unauthenticated client, including…
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Medium 6.5
anacrolix/torrent through 1.61.0 Memory Exhaustion via Unbounded HTTP Tracker Response
anacrolix/torrent through 1.61.0 contains a memory exhaustion vulnerability in the tracker/http package that allows malicious trackers to crash clients by returning unbounded responses. Attackers controlling an HTTP tracker in a torrent file or magnet link ca…
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Critical 9.1
Apache OFBiz: Denial of Service via unauthenticated userTenantId in multitenant mode
In multitenant deployments, ContextFilter and LoginWorker built a per-tenant delegator name from a request-supplied userTenantId parameter and requested a delegator for it before confirming the tenant existed. DelegatorFactory's internal cache retains every d…
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High 7.5
Apache OFBiz: Unbounded multi-form row count from a parameter name
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in ServiceMultiEventHandler in Apache OFBiz 24.09 before 24.09.08 on all platforms allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to pin a server request thread for an attacker-chosen number of synchronous service dispatches, up to…
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High 8.7
Apache Juneau: Denial of service via unbounded memory allocation in parsers and REST request handling
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in Apache Juneau. The MessagePack parser, which the REST server enables by default, sizes buffers from length values in the input. An unauthenticated client can send a few bytes that force a m…
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High 7.5
h2o: heap exhaustion using capsules
h2o is an HTTP server with support for HTTP/1.x, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3. Prior to commit 4212ce114506a073505fd389db16ad2ba4e582a0, a client could send an incomplete CONNECT-UDP Capsule with an excessively large declared length, causing H2O to keep buffering receiv…
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Medium 6.5
Zulip: Missing content-length limit on POST /messages/render allows denial-of-service via oversized requests
Zulip is an open-source team collaboration tool. In Zulip Server versions through 12.1, the authenticated POST /messages/render endpoint renders the content parameter without enforcing the normal message length limit used by message send and edit operations. …
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High 8.9
Unbounded query cache growth from interpolated JSON paths and splice lists in Ecto
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 …
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High 7.1
Apache ZooKeeper: Denial of service through unbounded memory allocation in multiRead request handling
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in the multiRead request handler of Apache ZooKeeper allows a remote attacker to crash the server (denial of service) with a single small request. The multiRead handler places no limit on the number of bund…
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High 8.7
Apache ZooKeeper: Unbounded recursion in snapshot serialization allows a client to render the server unrecoverable
Uncontrolled recursion in Apache ZooKeeper. The server serializes its data tree to a snapshot by recursing one stack frame per znode level, with no depth bound. A client permitted to create znodes (the default root ACL is open) can build a chain of nested zno…
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High 7.5
WordPress SAML SP Single Sign On plugin <= 6.1.0 - Denial of Service Attack vulnerability
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in miniOrange SAML SP Single Sign On miniorange-saml-20-single-sign-on allows HTTP DoS.This issue affects SAML SP Single Sign On: from n/a through 6.1.0.
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Low 2.7
Resource exhaustion vulnerability in HTTP request handling impacts Qt HTTP Server (QHttpServer)
Resource exhaustion vulnerability in the HTTP request handling of the QHttpServer component of Qt HTTP Server.
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Medium 6.5
CGI versions before 5.00 for Perl allow memory, CPU and disk exhaustion via missing or unenforced request size, parameter and upload limits
CGI versions before 5.00 for Perl allow memory, CPU and disk exhaustion via missing or unenforced request size, parameter and upload limits. $CGI::POST_MAX defaults to no limit, and when set is not enforced for chunked multipart bodies or for the boundary lin…
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Medium 4.3
Tanium addressed an uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in Threat Response.
Tanium addressed an uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in Threat Response.
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High 8.2
Angular: Denial of Service via RouterLink Query Parameter Retention in Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
Angular is a development platform for building mobile and desktop web applications using TypeScript/JavaScript and other languages. From 21.2.0 until 21.2.25 and 22.2.1, RouterLink directives rendered during Node.js server-side rendering retain computed UrlTr…
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High 7.5
ag-psd: Uncontrolled Memory Allocation in PSD Layer Decoding (totalMemoryLimit bypass)
ag-psd is a JavaScript library for reading and writing Photoshop Document files. Prior to 31.0.3, readPsd() accepts a totalMemoryLimit for parsing untrusted PSD files, but decodeLayerImageData expects a differently named memoryLimit property and therefore pas…
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Medium 6.5
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in APM Server Leading to Denial of Service
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) in APM Server can lead to denial of service via Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (CAPEC-231). An attacker who can send OpenTelemetry (OTLP) data to APM Server over HTTP can cause APM Server to e…
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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 a specially crafted input value that is processed by an affected phonetic encoder of the analysis-phonetic plugin. An authenticated user with per…
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Medium 5.3
Potential memory exhaustion in MultiPartParser via base64-encoded file upload
An issue was discovered in Django 6.1 before 6.1.3, 6.0.4 before 6.0.10, and 5.2.13 before 5.2.19. `django.http.multipartparser.MultiPartParser` is subject to excessive memory consumption when processing multipart file uploads with base64 `Content-Transfer-En…
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High 7.5
Heap exhaustion via unbounded line accumulation in Vert.x STOMP FrameParser
In Eclipse Vert.x versions [4.0.0, 4.5.35] or [5.0.0, 5.2.2], the `FrameParser` in vertx-stomp creates a `RecordParser` without setting `maxRecordSize`, so any peer that streams bytes continuously without a newline character causes the parser to accumulate da…
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Medium 5.9
Heap exhaustion via unbounded simple string or bulk string allocation in Vert.x Redis client
In Eclipse Vert.x versions [4.0.0, 4.5.35] or [5.0.0, 5.2.2], when a malicious server keeps sending bytes on an EOL-terminated line (not length-prefixed, for example a simple string [1]), we'll keep growing the buffer without bounds, eventually leading to an …
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Medium 6.5
FreeRDP 3.0.0 before 3.32.2 Proxy Memory Exhaustion via DVC Reassembly
FreeRDP from 3.0.0 before 3.32.2 contains an uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in the proxy that lets connected clients retain heap memory via intercepted DVC message reassembly. Attackers can declare a large DATA_FIRST length and keep sending f…
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Medium 4.3
FreeRDP before 3.32.2 Memory Exhaustion via Serial RDPDR Device Control
FreeRDP before 3.32.2 fails to cap the OutputBufferLength in serial device-control IRP requests, allowing malicious servers to trigger excessive memory allocation. Attackers running a server with serial redirection can send an IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL request wi…
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Medium 4.3
FreeRDP before 3.32.2 Denial of Service via Malformed Drive IRP
FreeRDP before 3.32.2 contains a denial of service vulnerability where a malformed drive DEVICE_IOREQUEST with a truncated IRP_MJ_CREATE body silently kills the drive worker. A malicious RDP server can send such an IRP then post further requests that accumula…
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Medium 4.3
FreeRDP before 3.32.2 Memory Exhaustion via RD Gateway Packet Length
FreeRDP before 3.32.2 contains a memory allocation vulnerability in rdg_receive_packet that allows a malicious RD Gateway to force a 2 GiB client allocation before tunnel authentication. Attackers can send an eight-byte RDG header declaring packet length 0x7F…
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Medium 6.5
FreeRDP 3.0.0 before 3.32.2 Uncapped Memory Allocation via DRDYNVC DATA_FIRST
FreeRDP from 3.0.0 before 3.32.2 contains an uncontrolled resource allocation vulnerability that allows malicious RDP servers to force large client allocations through the DRDYNVC DATA_FIRST Length field. Attackers can declare lengths up to 4,294,967,295 byte…
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High 7.5
Unauthenticated memory-exhaustion denial of service in Eclipse Mnestix AAS Generator unbounded count parameter
In Eclipse Mnestix AAS Generator versions 0.1.0 up until but excluding 1.5.0, a practical upper bound on the client-supplied count parameter of the GET /api/v1/IdGenerator/submodelIds/{count} and GET /api/v2/IdGenerator/submodelIds/{count} endpoints is not en…
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Medium 6.9
Vulnerability due to a lack of request limits in Alosuite’s password recovery functionality.
Vulnerability due to a lack of request limits in Alosuite’s password recovery functionality. The ‘/Account/resetPwd’ endpoint does not enforce adequate restrictions on the number or frequency of password reset requests sent for a single account. As a result, …
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High 8.7
NetX Secure DTLS server allocates a session for each new source before the cookie exchange and never reclaims it, so spoofed datagrams exhaust the session pool
In Eclipse ThreadX NetX Duo versions 6.0 through 6.5.2.202603a, the NetX Secure DTLS server allocates a session from its fixed session pool for the first datagram from any unrecognised address and port, before the cookie exchange, and never releases a session…
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High 8.3
Apache Wicket: Configured upload limits are not enforced by the standalone file upload resource
Allocation of resources without limits or throttling in Apache Wicket. org.apache.wicket.markup.html.form.upload.resource.AbstractFileUploadResource is the server side of the form-less upload offered by FileUploadToResourceField, which posts the selected file…
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Medium 5.3
WPGraphQL before 2.24.1 Email Flooding via Aliased sendPasswordResetEmail Mutations
WPGraphQL before 2.24.1 contains a missing rate limiting vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to flood password reset emails by aliasing the sendPasswordResetEmail mutation. Attackers can send one HTTP request with many aliases, bypassing batch…