API service interruption via unbounded MCP metadata
Published Sep 1, 2026 · Updated Sep 2, 2026
Resource exhaustion in Nous Research Hermes Agent 0.18.0 through 0.18.2 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt API service. The MCP Tool's list_tools path retains the full tool list and registers unbounded descriptions and schemas without count, size, or depth limits. Exploitation requires an API key, an enabled API server, and a configured MCP server able to return oversized metadata or results, which can exhaust shared chat concurrency and produce HTTP 429 responses.
Summary
What happened
Resource exhaustion in Nous Research Hermes Agent 0.18.0 through 0.18.2 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt API service. The MCP Tool's list_tools path retains the full tool list and registers unbounded descriptions and schemas without count, size, or depth limits. Exploitation requires an API key, an enabled API server, and a configured MCP server able to return oversized metadata or results, which can exhaust shared chat concurrency and produce HTTP 429 responses.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-84289
- Published
- Sep 1, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 2, 2026
- Vendor
- Nous Research
- Product
- Hermes Agent
- Classifications
- CWE-789, CWE-400, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 1, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 2, 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=0.18.0
- Affected versionversion=0.18.1
- Affected versionversion=0.18.2
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
- Hermes MCP Tool Resource Amplification DoS reproductionfunctional · 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
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