libp2p DoS vulnerability from lack of resource management

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS

• CVE-2022-23486: 0.73% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 54.46 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact An attacker node can cause a victim node to allocate a large number of small memory chunks, which can ultimately lead to the victim’s process running out of memory and thus getting killed by its operating system. When executed continuously, this can lead to a denial of service attack, especially relevant on a larger scale when run against more than one node of a libp2p based network. Details In the original version of the attack, the malicious node would continuously open new streams on a single connection using a stream multiplexer that doesn’t provide sufficient back pressure (mplex or yamux). While allocations per stream might be considered small, they multiply with the number of streams and connections. It is easy to defend against this one attack, e.g. by setting a strict per connection stream limit and connection limit. But there are other variations of this attack, e.g. causing memory allocations by sending partial payloads on various protocol levels, forcing the victim…

Published by the source

7 Dec 2022, 20:28 UTC

Last modified by the source

14 Jul 2023, 21:53 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:37 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-jvgw-gccv-q5p8

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2022-23486

Advisory: libp2p DoS vulnerability from lack of resource management
IDs: CVE-2022-23486, GHSA-jvgw-gccv-q5p8
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2022-23486 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:37 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: libp2p 0.45.1. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- crates.io libp2p: affected <= 0.45.0; fixed in 0.45.1

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- crates.io libp2p: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on libp2p.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-jvgw-gccv-q5p8 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-jvgw-gccv-q5p8 lists affected ranges: crates.io libp2p >=0 <=0.45.0)

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