CVE-2026-48802
Received
Received - Intake
Denial of Service via Heartbeat Thread in python-engineio
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-48802, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-08-11
Last updated on: 2026-08-11
Assigner: GitHub, Inc.
Description
Description
python-engineio is a Python implementation of the Engine.IO realtime client and server. Prior to version 4.13.2, an attacker can cause the creation of unnecessary background threads in the python-engineio server by exploiting the heartbeat mechanism, which launches a thread when a new connection is received, and when the client sends a PONG packet. This issue primarily affects synchronous servers. Asynchronous servers allocate background tasks instead of physical threads, which are lightweight and less likely to cause denial of service. However, the fix that was implemented was also applied to the asynchronous case. Version 4.13.2 addresses this issue as follows: The initial background thread (or async task( for heartbeat management is only launched if a client passes authentication in the `connect` handler; and the server now ensures that there is only one background heatbeat thread (or async task) per client at a given point in time. Out of sequence PONG packets are now discarded when an active heartbeat thread is already running.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| miguelgrinberg | python-engineio | to 4.13.2 (exc) |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| 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. |
