CVE-2026-121809
Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop') vulnerability in elixir-grpc grpc_server and grpc allows unauthenticated attackers to occupy a BEAM scheduler indefinitely via a client-streaming or bidirectional-streaming request whose body ends inside a gRPC message. GRPC.Server.Adapters.Cowboy.read_stream/1 (grpc_server/lib/grpc/server/adapters/cowboy.ex, and the Cowboy adapter in grpc before the package split) asks for more data whenever the buffer does not hold a complete message. Once the request body has ended, every further read returns an empty chunk, so the buffer never changes and the function retries without end. A single 5-byte length prefix sent with END_STREAM keeps one scheduler busy for as long as the connection stays open, and repeated requests exhaust all schedulers. This issue affects grpc_server: from 1.0.0 before 1.1.0; grpc: from 0.3.1 before 1.0.0.
Exploitability / impact
CVSS metric breakdown
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NCVSS communicates standardized severity and impact characteristics. It does not establish whether a system is exploitable in your specific environment.
Record context
Credits
- Adam Jordan
- Adam Jordan
- Marko Vejnovic
- Paulo Valente
- Peter Ullrich
- Jonatan Männchen / EEF