Parallax is vulnerable to DoS via malicious p2p message

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

No dated EPSS signal available.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact A vulnerable node can be made to consume very large amounts of memory when handling specially crafted p2p messages sent from an attacker node. In order to carry out the attack, the attacker establishes a peer connections to the victim, and sends a malicious GetBlockHeadersRequest message with a count of 0, using the Parallax protocol. In descendants := chain.GetHeadersFrom(num+count-1, count-1), the value of count-1 is passed to the function GetHeadersFrom(number, count uint64) as parameter count. Due to integer overflow, UINT64MAX value is then passed as the count argument to function GetHeadersFrom(number, count uint64). This allows an attacker to bypass maxHeadersServe and request all headers from the latest block back to the genesis block. Patches The fix has been included in the Parallax client version 0.1.4 and onwards. The vulnerability was patched in: https://github.com/microstack-tech/parallax/commit/f759e9090aaf00a43c616d7cbd133c44bb1ed01e Workarounds No workarounds…

Published by the source

10 Oct 2025, 23:45 UTC

Last modified by the source

23 Oct 2025, 20:34 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:13 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-xc79-566c-j4qx

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# Patch Next advisory brief: GHSA-xc79-566c-j4qx

Advisory: Parallax is vulnerable to DoS via malicious p2p message
IDs: GHSA-xc79-566c-j4qx
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/ghsa-xc79-566c-j4qx (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:13 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: github.com/microstack-tech/parallax 0.1.4. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/microstack-tech/parallax: affected < 0.1.4; fixed in 0.1.4

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/microstack-tech/parallax: 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 github.com/microstack-tech/parallax.
- 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-xc79-566c-j4qx (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-xc79-566c-j4qx lists affected ranges: Go github.com/microstack-tech/parallax >=0 <0.1.4)

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