Broker crash via reply-to atom-table exhaustion
Published Sep 23, 2026 · Updated Sep 23, 2026
Resource exhaustion in RabbitMQ Server 4.2.0 through 4.2.6 and 4.3.0 allows remote authenticated users to crash the broker. rabbit_pid_codec:decompose_from_binary/1 converts an untrusted reply-to node name with binary_to_atom before checking cluster membership, permanently consuming an atom for each unique value. Exploitation requires an authenticated AMQP 0-9-1 connection and roughly one million crafted requests, after which the Erlang VM aborts and all virtual hosts and connections stop.
Summary
What happened
Resource exhaustion in RabbitMQ Server 4.2.0 through 4.2.6 and 4.3.0 allows remote authenticated users to crash the broker. rabbit_pid_codec:decompose_from_binary/1 converts an untrusted reply-to node name with binary_to_atom before checking cluster membership, permanently consuming an atom for each unique value. Exploitation requires an authenticated AMQP 0-9-1 connection and roughly one million crafted requests, after which the Erlang VM aborts and all virtual hosts and connections stop.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-67238
- Published
- Sep 23, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 23, 2026
- Vendor
- RabbitMQ
- Product
- RabbitMQ Server
- Classifications
- CWE-400, T1499.003
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 23, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 23, 2026Record 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=>= 4.2.0, < 4.2.7
- Affected versionversion=>= 4.3.0, < 4.3.1
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.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- RabbitMQ reply-to atom-table exhaustion exploit scenarioproof of concept · demonstrated
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
Get started to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Get started