CVE-2026-65623
Received Received - Intake

Denial of Service in Bandit via WebSocket Fragment Reassembly

Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-65623, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.

Publication date: 2026-07-24

Last updated on: 2026-07-24

Assigner: EEF

Description

Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity vulnerability in mtrudel bandit allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via CPU exhaustion during WebSocket fragment reassembly. The size guard 'Elixir.Bandit.WebSocket.Connection':oversize_message?/2 called from handle_frame/3 in lib/bandit/websocket/connection.ex appends each non-final continuation frame to a left-nested iolist and then re-measures the entire accumulated buffer with IO.iodata_length/1 on every frame. Because the buffer grows by one element per frame and is fully re-traversed each time, reassembly work is quadratic (O(n^2)) in the number of continuation frames. The max_fragmented_message_size limit (default 8 MB) bounds total bytes but not frame count, and each frame can carry as little as one payload byte, so an attacker can send millions of tiny continuation frames using modest bandwidth to pin a CPU core for minutes to hours. Many concurrent connections can starve the whole server of CPU, denying service to legitimate users. The WebSocket read timeout does not help, because it is an idle timeout evaluated between reads and cannot preempt the synchronous reassembly work spent inside a single callback. This issue affects bandit: from 1.11.0 before 1.12.1.

CVSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published
2026-07-24
Last Modified
2026-07-24
Generated
2026-07-24
AI Q&A
2026-07-24
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
EUVD

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
elixir bandit From 1.11.0 (inc) to 1.12.1 (exc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-407 An algorithm in a product has an inefficient worst-case computational complexity that may be detrimental to system performance and can be triggered by an attacker, typically using crafted manipulations that ensure that the worst case is being reached.

Attack-Flow Graph

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability is an inefficient algorithmic complexity issue in the mtrudel bandit library. It allows unauthenticated remote denial of service through CPU exhaustion during WebSocket fragment reassembly. The problem occurs because the reassembly process has quadratic time complexity (O(n^2)), meaning the work required grows rapidly with the number of frames. Attackers can exploit this by sending many tiny continuation frames, consuming excessive CPU resources and potentially denying service to legitimate users.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability causes high CPU usage due to inefficient WebSocket fragment reassembly. Monitor CPU usage spikes on servers running Bandit versions 1.11.0 to 1.12.0. Check for excessive WebSocket connections or fragmented messages in logs. Use tools like top, htop, or system monitoring dashboards to detect abnormal CPU load.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can impact you by causing your server to become unresponsive or slow due to excessive CPU usage. Attackers can send millions of tiny WebSocket frames, pinning a CPU core for extended periods. Multiple concurrent attacks can starve the entire server of CPU resources, denying service to legitimate users and potentially disrupting your applications or services.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could lead to denial of service by exhausting CPU resources, potentially causing service disruptions. For GDPR, this may impact availability of data processing systems, requiring breach notifications if personal data is affected. HIPAA could be impacted if the service handles protected health information, as downtime may violate access requirements.

Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade Bandit to version 1.12.1 or later to fix the O(n^2) complexity issue. If immediate upgrade is not possible, restrict WebSocket connections or implement rate limiting to reduce the impact of fragmented message attacks. Monitor and block suspicious traffic patterns.

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