Memory leak in Protocol-HTTP2
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-401.
Summary
Protocol::HTTP2 versions before 1.14 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via closed streams that stream_state never removes from the connection stream table. When a stream reaches the CLOSED state, stream_state returns the concurrency slot and clears most of the stream's keys, but the entry itself stays in the connection stream table and nothing in the distribution removes it. Stream identifiers increase monotonically, so a peer can open and close streams on one connection indefinitely, each close leaving a residual entry that is retained for the life of the connection. SETTINGS_MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS does not bound this. That setting caps how many streams are live at once and is enforced, while the growth is made of streams the cap has already released, so it accumulates with concurrency never exceeding one. The client keeps the same table and grows the same way against a hostile server. Measured against a server built on this module, roughly 920 bytes are retained per closed stream for about 19 bytes on the wire, so 100,000 sequential streams on one connection grow server resident memory by about 88 MiB. The streams are ordinary requests that the application accepts and completes.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Protocol-HTTP2 | before 1.14 | 1.14 | Patch available | CNA |
- Protocol-HTTP2 Vendor— Affected before 1.14 Fixed in 1.14 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Protocol-HTTP2 Fixed in 1.14
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-16028
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-4hff-3256-7fpc
References
Sources
- CVE-2026-16028 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-16028 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-4hff-3256-7fpc · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-16028 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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