Denial of service via malformed HTTP/2 frames
Published Aug 13, 2025 · Updated Nov 3, 2025
HTTP/2 resource exhaustion in affected F5 BIG-IP products allows remote attackers to interrupt service with malformed control frames. Server-generated stream resets release streams from the protocol-level concurrency count while associated request processing continues, permitting work to exceed the configured stream limit. Exposure requires an HTTP/2-enabled virtual server; sustained traffic causes high CPU use and memory exhaustion on the data plane.
Summary
What happened
HTTP/2 resource exhaustion in affected F5 BIG-IP products allows remote attackers to interrupt service with malformed control frames. Server-generated stream resets release streams from the protocol-level concurrency count while associated request processing continues, permitting work to exceed the configured stream limit. Exposure requires an HTTP/2-enabled virtual server; sustained traffic causes high CPU use and memory exhaustion on the data plane.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-54500
- Published
- Aug 13, 2025
- Updated
- Nov 3, 2025
- Vendor
- F5 Networks
- Product
- BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes
- Classifications
- CWE-770, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 13, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Nov 3, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=2.0.0 <*
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo