CVE-2026-78058: Apache bRPC: Unbounded Resource Consumption and Crash in the HTTP/2 Receive Path
This Apache advisory covers CVE-2026-78058 in Apache bRPC.
- CVE-2026-78058
Key facts
- CISA KEV
- Not listed (catalogue checked )
- Affected
- Apache bRPC before 1.18.0
- Fixed in
- 1.18.0
- Source published
- Source revised
- Listed by VulniPulse
- Record changed
Compiled by VulniPulse from the linked sources. How records are collected and checked.
Affected products & platforms
Description
Uncontrolled resource consumption in the HTTP/2 (h2) receive path of Apache bRPC (version < 1.18.0) on all platforms allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to crash the server or grow its memory without bound by sending crafted HTTP/2 frames.
Root Cause: The h2 parser, enabled by default on every bRPC server port and used by h2/gRPC clients, trusts the peer to respect receive-side limits that bRPC advertises but never enforces:
1. SETTINGS_MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS defaulted to unlimited and was never checked on the server, letting a peer pin an unbounded number of pending streams per connection (~100x memory amplification).
2. SETTINGS_MAX_HEADER_LIST_SIZE defaulted to unlimited and was never enforced; 1-byte HPACK indexed references amplify a small HEADERS frame ~4000x into an unbounded decoded header list ("HPACK bomb"), and a never-completed HEADERS/CONTINUATION block accumulates memory without limit.
3. Control-frame acks (PING/SETTINGS acks, RST_STREAM, GOAWAY, WINDOW_UPDATE) unconditionally bypassed the -socket_max_unwritten_bytes write cap, so a PING flood combined with withheld TCP reads grew the connection buffer without the documented bound.
4.
Text from the source record.
- Apache bRPC before 1.18.0
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched ·verify at source
How to fix CVE-2026-78058
Upgrade to a fixed release named by Apache:
- 1.18.0
Vendor guidance
- The HPACK dynamic table size update was validated against the protocol default (4096) instead of the advertised SETTINGS_HEADER_TABLE_SIZE, which together with the dynamic-table queue/accounting issue can desynchronize the decoder and dereference NULL (crash).
- How to fix: Upgrade bRPC, or apply the patch in https://github.com/apache/brpc/pull/3474.
Workarounds
- byte HPACK indexed references amplify a small HEADERS frame ~4000x into an unbounded decoded header list ("HPACK bomb"), and a never-completed HEADERS/CONTINUATION block accumulates memory without limit.
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Apache Software Foundation advisories, October 2026All Apache Software Foundation advisories
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