Host-process crash via unbounded stdio frame buffering
Published Sep 8, 2026 · Updated Sep 8, 2026
Resource exhaustion in MCP Kotlin SDK 0.7.0 through 0.12.0 allows remote attackers to crash a host process via unframed stdio input. ReadBuffer.append retains every byte until a newline appears, while unlimited transport channels add queued chunks without a size cap or backpressure. Exploitation requires attacker-controlled input to reach a stdio transport, where memory growth ends in OutOfMemoryError or host OOM termination.
Summary
What happened
Resource exhaustion in MCP Kotlin SDK 0.7.0 through 0.12.0 allows remote attackers to crash a host process via unframed stdio input. ReadBuffer.append retains every byte until a newline appears, while unlimited transport channels add queued chunks without a size cap or backpressure. Exploitation requires attacker-controlled input to reach a stdio transport, where memory growth ends in OutOfMemoryError or host OOM termination.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-53937
- Published
- Sep 8, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 8, 2026
- Vendor
- Model Context Protocol
- Product
- MCP Kotlin SDK Core
- Classifications
- CWE-400, CWE-770, T1499.003
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 8, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 8, 2026Record 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=< 0.13.0
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- StdioServerTransport unterminated-input reproductionproof 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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