CVE-2026-118391
Received Received - Intake

Memory Exhaustion in Elixir Ecto via JSON Path Injection

Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-118391, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.

Publication date: 2026-11-04

Last updated on: 2026-11-04

Assigner: EEF

Description

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 the application interpolates them into json_extract_path/2, field[^key] or splice/1. Ecto caches prepared queries per repository in an ETS table with no size limit and no eviction. Interpolated JSON path elements become part of the query expression instead of its parameters, and splice/1 expands into one placeholder per element, so every distinct key or list length creates a new cache entry. With ecto_sql each entry is also a new prepared statement on the database connection that runs it. None of this memory is released until the processes restart. This issue affects ecto: from 3.4.0 before 3.14.3.

CVSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published
2026-11-04
Last Modified
2026-11-04
Generated
2026-11-04
AI Q&A
2026-11-04
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
EUVD

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 2 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
elixir-ecto ecto 3.4.0
elixir-ecto ecto cb2f03964dac324a9771f84f5088e395326e6de8

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-770 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.

Attack-Flow Graph

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Executive Summary

CVE-2026-118391 is a memory exhaustion vulnerability in the Ecto library (versions 3.4.0 to 3.14.2) caused by unbounded query cache growth. Attackers can send requests with distinct JSON keys or list lengths, forcing the application to create new cache entries for each unique query. This exhausts memory in both the application and database server since each entry remains cached until restart.

Detection Guidance

Detecting this vulnerability requires monitoring for unusual memory usage patterns in your Elixir application and database server. Look for rapid memory growth in the BEAM runtime or PostgreSQL processes when handling queries with interpolated JSON paths, field access like field[^key], or splice/1 operations. Check Ecto query cache size and prepared statement counts for abnormal increases.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can lead to denial-of-service by consuming all available memory in your application and database. Systems may slow down or crash, causing downtime. Attackers could exploit it remotely without authentication, making it critical for applications using Ecto with JSON queries or dynamic list operations.

Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade Ecto to version 3.14.3 or later immediately. If upgrading is not possible, disable the Ecto query cache for affected queries or validate external input to prevent unbounded cache growth. Avoid using interpolated JSON paths or splice/1 in queries until patched.

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