Daemon crash via short ASCII-auth input
Published Sep 14, 2026 · Updated Sep 14, 2026
Out-of-bounds read in memcached 1.6.41 through 1.6.43 allows remote attackers to crash the daemon via crafted ASCII authentication input. When ASCII authentication is enabled, try_read_command_asciiauth passes newline-terminated input below the parser's minimum length to the mcmc tokenizer. The -Y authentication-file configuration is required; repeated empty newlines interrupt the cache service without reported code execution.
Summary
What happened
Out-of-bounds read in memcached 1.6.41 through 1.6.43 allows remote attackers to crash the daemon via crafted ASCII authentication input. When ASCII authentication is enabled, try_read_command_asciiauth passes newline-terminated input below the parser's minimum length to the mcmc tokenizer. The -Y authentication-file configuration is required; repeated empty newlines interrupt the cache service without reported code execution.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-90698
- Published
- Sep 14, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 14, 2026
- Vendor
- Memcached
- Product
- memcached
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 14, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 14, 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=1.6.41
- Affected versionversion=1.6.42
- Affected versionversion=1.6.43
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
No CVSS assessment is available in this record.
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
- Empty-newline ASCII-auth crash triggerproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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