---
id: CVE-2026-48854
title: >-
  Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in
  elixir-grpc grpc allows unauthenticated attackers to exhaust the BEAM's memory
  and crash the server by streaming a large or slow-trickle unary request body.


  'Elixir.G…
summary: >-
  Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in
  elixir-grpc grpc allows unauthenticated attackers to exhaust the BEAM's memory
  and crash the server by streaming a large or slow-trickle unary request body.


  'Elixir.G…
severity: high
cvss: 8.7
cvssVector: 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'
cwe:
  - CWE-770
vendor: elixir-grpc
product: grpc
affected:
  - grpc >= 0.3.0-alpha.2 < 1.0.0
  - >-
    elixir-grpc/grpc >= d1abe70a6cad6dac4a3f8235d883d7c896989560 <
    49e18c3ec6bb9afe2f712caad3dbab5c56a68a00
patched:
  - grpc 1.0.0
published: '2026-06-15'
updated: '2026-09-24'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-24T22:17:00.023'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-48854'
references:
  - url: 'https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-48854.html'
    label: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/49e18c3ec6bb9afe2f712caad3dbab5c56a68a00
    label: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/d1abe70a6cad6dac4a3f8235d883d7c896989560
    label: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/security/advisories/GHSA-q8gf-9rvj-gmgj
    label: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
  - url: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-48854'
    label: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/security/advisories/GHSA-q8gf-9rvj-gmgj
    label: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-48854'
  - url: 'https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/pull/542'
  - url: 'https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/releases/tag/v1.0.0'
  - url: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-q8gf-9rvj-gmgj'
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
  - exploit-available
  - ghsa
  - erlang
epss: 0.00451
epssPercentile: 0.3652
aliases:
  - GHSA-q8gf-9rvj-gmgj
ecosystem: erlang
exploitAvailable: true
ssvc:
  exploitation: poc
  automatable: 'yes'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-06-16T14:47:02.881535Z'
cvssSource: cna
ingestedAt: '2026-08-25T18:30:21.233Z'
---

## Overview

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in elixir-grpc grpc allows unauthenticated attackers to exhaust the BEAM's memory and crash the server by streaming a large or slow-trickle unary request body.

'Elixir.GRPC.Server.Adapters.Cowboy.Handler':read_full_body/3 (lib/grpc/server/adapters/cowboy/handler.ex) accumulates every received chunk into a single growing binary with no size cap. Additionally, when the client omits the grpc-timeout header, the per-chunk read timeout resolves to :infinity, allowing a slow-trickle client to keep the connection alive indefinitely while memory grows. A single connection is sufficient to exhaust server memory and crash the node.

This issue affects grpc: from 0.3.0-alpha.2 before 1.0.0.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.

## Package advisory (CVE-2026-48854)

Affected packages:

- `grpc >= 0.3.1, < 1.0.0`

Patched in:

- `grpc 1.0.0`

Source: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-q8gf-9rvj-gmgj