CVE-2026-59248: Software Security Vulnerability Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-f37p-pc7r-rghm
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CWE-770
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-59248 is a HIGH security vulnerability vulnerability (CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) affecting Software libraries in the Maven ecosystem. The weakness occurs when 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.. Remediation is available in the latest vendor maintenance releases.

CVE-2026-59248 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-59248
GHSA Identifier GHSA-f37p-pc7r-rghm
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score N/A
CWE Classification CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Affected Product Software
Package Ecosystem Maven
Published Date
Last Updated

How to Fix CVE-2026-59248

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Software dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

mvn dependency:tree

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Java application is affected by CVE-2026-59248, inspect your build dependencies using the Maven Dependency Plugin:

mvn dependency:tree

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Software in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than the patched release), your application is affected.

Note: The mvn dependency:tree command inspects the resolved dependency graph declared in your project's POM files; it does not perform automated security scanning or inspect runtime dynamic classpaths. Always verify runtime container classpaths and shaded JARs.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling, where 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. In Software, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

Allocation of resources without limits vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows an unauthenticated remote HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 peer to exhaust memory on the vulnerable server (or client) and cause a denial of service. The HPACK and QPACK prefixed-integer decoder cow_hpack_common:dec_big_int/3 in src/cow_hpack_common.hrl (invoked from cow_hpack:decode/2 in src/cow_hpack.erl and from cow_qpack:decode_field_section/3 in src/cow_qpack.erl) reads continuation octets until it sees one whose high bit is clear, evaluating Int + (Value bsl M) at each step with the shift M growing by seven per octet. No limit is enforced on the number of continuation octets, on the resulting bit width, or on the value; the decoder consumes whatever encoded length the peer supplies. Because Erlang integers are immutable, each intermediate Value bsl M and each accumulator update allocates a fresh bignum whose digit width grows linearly with the number of octets processed so far. Summed across the whole decode, the transient bignum digit materialization is on the order of the square of the encoded length. A single maximal HPACK indexed representation carried inside one HTTP/2 HEADERS plus one CONTINUATION frame at Cowboy's default max_frame_size_received can force hundreds of megabytes of transient allocation and garbage-collection churn before the resulting header-table index is rejected as invalid. Repeated or concurrent connections multiply the pressure and can drive the Erlang VM to memory exhaustion. Cowlib is the HTTP parser used by Cowboy, RabbitMQ's management plugin, and other Erlang and Elixir HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 servers and clients, so any exposed endpoint that accepts HPACK or QPACK from an untrusted peer is reachable. This issue affects cowlib: from 2.0.0 before 2.19.0.

References

NVD — CVE-2026-59248 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59248
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/ninenines/cowlib/commit/f582430498072a0c65ad338030321576dc13a343
cna.erlef.org/cves/cve-2026-59248... WEB
https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-59248.html
osv.dev/vulnerability/eef-c... WEB
https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-59248

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-59248?
CVE-2026-59248 is a security vulnerability in Software classified as a security vulnerability vulnerability under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling.
Which Software versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to current release patches.
What version fixes CVE-2026-59248?
Upgrading to current release patches (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-59248?
CVE-2026-59248 is classified under 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 can I check Maven dependencies for CVE-2026-59248?
Run the dependency tree command: 'mvn dependency:tree'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-f37p-pc7r-rghm",
  "modified" : "2026-07-28T12:31:20Z",
  "published" : "2026-07-28T12:31:20Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-59248" ],
  "details" : "Allocation of resources without limits vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows an unauthenticated remote HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 peer to exhaust memory on the vulnerable server (or client) and cause a denial of service.\n\nThe HPACK and QPACK prefixed-integer decoder cow_hpack_common:dec_big_int/3 in src/cow_hpack_common.hrl (invoked from cow_hpack:decode/2 in src/cow_hpack.erl and from cow_qpack:decode_field_section/3 in src/cow_qpack.erl) reads continuation octets until it sees one whose high bit is clear, evaluating Int + (Value bsl M) at each step with the shift M growing by seven per octet. No limit is enforced on the number of continuation octets, on the resulting bit width, or on the value; the decoder consumes whatever encoded length the peer supplies.\n\nBecause Erlang integers are immutable, each intermediate Value bsl M and each accumulator update allocates a fresh bignum whose digit width grows linearly with the number of octets processed so far. Summed across the whole decode, the transient bignum digit materialization is on the order of the square of the encoded length. A single maximal HPACK indexed representation carried inside one HTTP/2 HEADERS plus one CONTINUATION frame at Cowboy's default max_frame_size_received can force hundreds of megabytes of transient allocation and garbage-collection churn before the resulting header-table index is rejected as invalid. Repeated or concurrent connections multiply the pressure and can drive the Erlang VM to memory exhaustion.\n\nCowlib is the HTTP parser used by Cowboy, RabbitMQ's management plugin, and other Erlang and Elixir HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 servers and clients, so any exposed endpoint that accepts HPACK or QPACK from an untrusted peer is reachable.\n\nThis issue affects cowlib: from 2.0.0 before 2.19.0.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/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:X"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59248"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/ninenines/cowlib/commit/f582430498072a0c65ad338030321576dc13a343"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-59248.html"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-59248"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-770" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : false,
    "github_reviewed_at" : null,
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-07-28T10:16:50Z"
  }
}