Description
NATS-Server is a High-Performance server for NATS.io, a cloud and edge native messaging system. The WebSockets handling of NATS messages handles compressed messages via the WebSockets negotiated compression. Prior to versions 2.11.2 and 2.12.3, the implementation bound the memory size of a NATS message but did not independently bound the memory consumption of the memory stream when constructing a NATS message which might then fail validation for size reasons. An attacker can use a compression bomb to cause excessive memory consumption, often resulting in the operating system terminating the server process. The use of compression is negotiated before authentication, so this does not require valid NATS credentials to exploit. The fix, present in versions 2.11.2 and 2.12.3, was to bounds the decompression to fail once the message was too large, instead of continuing on. The vulnerability only affects deployments which use WebSockets and which expose the network port to untrusted end-points.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| nats-io | nats-server | < 2.11.12, >= 2.12.0-RC.1, < 2.12.3 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | nats-server | 2.12.4-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | nats-server | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | nats-server | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | nats-server | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | nats-server | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | nats-server | No fix yet | — |
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 26.04 LTS | nats-server | No fix yet | — |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Leap 16.0 | govulncheck-vulndb | 0.0.20260723T184607-160000.1.1 | openSUSE-SU-2026:21483-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | govulncheck-vulndb | 0.0.20260226T182644-150000.1.149.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:0757-1 |
Azure Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Linux 3 | telegraf | 1.31.0-15 | — |
| Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) | telegraf | 1.29.4-21 | — |
Wolfi
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfi rolling | k3s-1.32 +1 | 1.32.12.1-r2 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kine | 0.14.12-r1 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | nats-top | 0.6.3-r14 | — |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Go | github.com/nats-io/nats-server | <= 1.4.1 | — | GHSA-qrvq-68c2-7grw |
| Go | github.com/nats-io/nats-server | all versions | — | GO-2026-4533 |
| Go | github.com/nats-io/nats-server/v2 | < 2.11.12 | 2.11.12 | GHSA-qrvq-68c2-7grw |
| Go | github.com/nats-io/nats-server/v2 | >= 2.12.0-RC.1, < 2.12.3 | 2.12.3 | GHSA-qrvq-68c2-7grw |
| Go | github.com/nats-io/nats-server/v2 | < 2.11.12 · >= 2.12.0-RC.1, < 2.12.3 | 2.11.12, 2.12.3 | GO-2026-4533 |
Advisories 3
- openSUSE-SU-2026:21483-1 Security update for govulncheck-vulndb SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Jul 31, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2026:0757-1 Security update for govulncheck-vulndb SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Mar 4, 2026
- WID-SEC-2026-0487 NATS Server: Schwachstelle ermöglicht Denial of Service BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Feb 24, 2026