RabbitMQ Java client's Lack of Message Size Limitation leads to Remote DoS Attack

Exploitation

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

CVSS

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

EPSS

• CVE-2023-46120: 1.34% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 71.25 (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.

Summary maxBodyLebgth was not used when receiving Message objects. Attackers could just send a very large Message causing a memory overflow and triggering an OOM Error. PoC RbbitMQ Use RabbitMQ 3.11.16 as MQ and specify Message Body size 512M (here it only needs to be larger than the Consumer memory) Start RabbitMQ Producer Build a String of length 256M and send it to Consumer Consumer First set the heap memory size to 128M Read the message sent by the Producer from the MQ and print the length Results Run the Producer first, then the Consumer Consumer throws OOM Exception Impact Users of RabbitMQ may suffer from DoS attacks from RabbitMQ Java client which will ultimately exhaust the memory of the consumer.

Published by the source

24 Oct 2023, 01:49 UTC

Last modified by the source

5 Nov 2023, 05:04 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 16:16 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-mm8h-8587-p46h

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-46120

Advisory: RabbitMQ Java client's Lack of Message Size Limitation leads to Remote DoS Attack
IDs: CVE-2023-46120, GHSA-mm8h-8587-p46h
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-46120 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 16:16 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 4.9)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: com.rabbitmq:amqp-client 5.18.0. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Maven com.rabbitmq:amqp-client: affected < 5.18.0; fixed in 5.18.0

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Maven com.rabbitmq:amqp-client: 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 com.rabbitmq:amqp-client.
- 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-mm8h-8587-p46h (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-mm8h-8587-p46h lists affected ranges: Maven com.rabbitmq:amqp-client >=0 <5.18.0)

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