Unauthenticated server crash via unhandled WebSocket frame
Published Jan 9, 2023 · Updated Mar 10, 2025
An uncaught exception in Mercurius subscriptions before 8.13.2 and 9.0.0 through 11.4.0 allows remote attackers to crash GraphQL servers. A client that negotiates graphql-ws on /graphql can send a malformed WebSocket frame with reserved bits set, and the unhandled socket error terminates the Node.js process. Subscriptions must be enabled and reachable; no authentication or user interaction is required, and the bounded consequence is a server crash.
Summary
What happened
An uncaught exception in Mercurius subscriptions before 8.13.2 and 9.0.0 through 11.4.0 allows remote attackers to crash GraphQL servers. A client that negotiates graphql-ws on /graphql can send a malformed WebSocket frame with reserved bits set, and the unhandled socket error terminates the Node.js process. Subscriptions must be enabled and reachable; no authentication or user interaction is required, and the bounded consequence is a server crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-22477
- Published
- Jan 9, 2023
- Updated
- Mar 10, 2025
- Vendor
- mercurius-js
- Product
- Mercurius
- Classifications
- CWE-248, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 9, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 10, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=< 10.5.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
- Malformed graphql-ws frame crash reproducerproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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