Public vulnerability disclosure

CVE-2026-121809

CPU exhaustion via a truncated gRPC message on streaming RPCs in elixir-grpc grpc_server

publishedCWE-400CWE-835

Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop') vulnerability in elixir-grpc grpc_server and grpc allows unauthenticated attackers to occupy a BEAM scheduler indefinitely via a client-streaming or bidirectional-streaming request whose body ends inside a gRPC message. GRPC.Server.Adapters.Cowboy.read_stream/1 (grpc_server/lib/grpc/server/adapters/cowboy.ex, and the Cowboy adapter in grpc before the package split) asks for more data whenever the buffer does not hold a complete message. Once the request body has ended, every further read returns an empty chunk, so the buffer never changes and the function retries without end. A single 5-byte length prefix sent with END_STREAM keeps one scheduler busy for as long as the connection stays open, and repeated requests exhaust all schedulers. This issue affects grpc_server: from 1.0.0 before 1.1.0; grpc: from 0.3.1 before 1.0.0.

Technical severity8.2 highCVSS 4.0 · CNA: EEF
Published2026-11-13Source updated 2026-11-13
Collected2026-11-132 attributed sources

Fixes and workarounds

Fix

The reporting source identifies this reference as a patch. Check the advisory for affected versions and supported release branches.

Source: CNA: EEF

Affected products and versions

Affected products, source version ranges and reporting authorities
ProductVersionsAuthority
grpc_server
elixir-grpc
grpc_server
hex
≥ 1.0.0; < 1.1.0 (affected, semver)
Other versions: unaffected
CNA: EEF
grpc_server
elixir-grpc
elixir-grpc/grpc
github
≥ 0332faae5f5e132314794dbfdae5edecbccea292; < 38955f1392cbf08eef231a347348445410455c85 (affected, git)
Other versions: unaffected
CNA: EEF
grpc
elixir-grpc
grpc
hex
≥ 0.3.1; < 1.0.0 (affected, semver)
Other versions: unaffected
CNA: EEF
grpc
elixir-grpc
elixir-grpc/grpc
github
≥ 6d8a09ad919e208fb600538ac8b19bd733a04310; < 0332faae5f5e132314794dbfdae5edecbccea292 (affected, git)
Other versions: unaffected
CNA: EEF

Version ranges are source assertions. Check the vendor advisory and your installed configuration before determining exposure.

CVSS assessments

CVSS scores, vectors and reporting authorities
Version / scoreVectorAuthority
4.0 / 8.2
high
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NCNA: EEF
4.0 / 8.2
high
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:XNVD: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db

Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

References

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