CVE-2026-32689

Long-poll NDJSON body splitting causes unbounded memory allocation in Phoenix

Published May 5, 2026 CVSS 4.0 · 8.7 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in phoenixframework phoenix allows a denial of service via the long-poll transport's NDJSON body handling.

In 'Elixir.Phoenix.Transports.LongPoll':publish/4, when a POST request is received with Content-Type: application/x-ndjson, the request body is split on newline characters using String.split/2 with no limit on the number of resulting segments. An attacker can send a body consisting entirely of newline bytes, causing a 1:1 amplification into a list of empty binaries — a 1 MB body produces approximately one million list elements, an 8 MB body approximately 8.4 million. Each element is then walked by Enum.map, materializing another list of the same size. This exhausts BEAM memory and schedulers, crashing the node and terminating all active sessions.

A session token required to reach the vulnerable endpoint is freely obtainable by any client via an unauthenticated GET request to the same URL with a matching Origin header, making this attack effectively unauthenticated.

This issue affects phoenix: from 1.7.0 before 1.7.22 and 1.8.6.

Remediation

Vendor Workaround

Disable the longpoll transport on all Phoenix.Socket declarations, including the LiveView /live socket, by removing or setting longpoll: false. Note that this prevents clients that cannot use WebSockets from connecting.

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-628h-q48j-jr6q Phoenix: Long-poll NDJSON body splitting causes large memory allocation
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in phoenixframework phoenix allows a denial of service via the long-poll transport's NDJSON body handling. In 'Elixir.Phoenix.Transports.LongPoll':publish/4, when a POST request is received with Content-Type: application/x-ndjson, the request body is split on newline characters using String.split/2 with no limit on the number of resulting segments. An attacker can send a body consisting entirely of newline bytes, causing a 1:1 amplification into a list of empty binaries — a 1 MB body produces approximately one million list elements, an 8 MB body approximately 8.4 million. Each element is then walked by Enum.map, materializing another list of the same size. This exhausts BEAM memory and schedulers, crashing the node and terminating all active sessions. A session token required to reach the vulnerable endpoint is freely obtainable by any client via an unauthenticated GET request to the same URL with a matching Origin header, making this attack effectively unauthenticated. This issue affects phoenix: from 1.7.0 before 1.7.22 and 1.8.6.
Title Long-poll NDJSON body splitting causes unbounded memory allocation in Phoenix
First Time appeared Phoenixframework
Phoenixframework phoenix
Weaknesses CWE-770
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:phoenixframework:phoenix:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Phoenixframework
Phoenixframework phoenix
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 8.7, 'vector': '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'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
EEF
Published
Updated
May 7, 2026, 4:25 AM
Reserved
Mar 13, 2026, 9:12 AM
Status
Deferred
Published
May 5, 2026, 4:16 PM
Modified
Oct 26, 2026, 7:10 PM