CVE-2023-46118 | Denial of Service by publishing large messages over the HTTP API

RabbitMQ is a multi-protocol messaging and streaming broker. HTTP API did not enforce an HTTP request body limit, making it vulnerable for denial of service (DoS) attacks with very large messages. An authenticated user with sufficient credentials can publish a very large messages over the HTTP API and cause target node to be terminated by an "out-of-memory killer"-like mechanism. This vulnerability has been patched in versions 3.11.24 and 3.12.7.

Published: 2023-10-25 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-46118 is rated Moderate Risk (41.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.08%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-46118

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.28% 1.08% +0.80%
2 2026-03-22 0.20% 0.28% +0.08%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.20% —

Full EPSS history (16 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-46118

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.2 3.6 [email protected]
4.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.2 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-46118

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-46118

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-46118 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (rabbitmq-server), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-46118
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-46118
suse medium CVE-2023-46118 severity moderate: SUSE including 32 source package names (elixir115-1.15.7-150300.7.5.1, elixir115-doc-1.15.7-150300.7.5.1, …), 89 product×package rows across 14 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Open Buildservice Development Tools 15 SP7, … (14 product lines)): Fixed 79, Will Not Fix 10. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-46118/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-46118 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (rabbitmq-server), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 9, needs-triage 2, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-46118

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-46118

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vmware rabbitmq < 3.11.24 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:rabbitmq:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
vmware rabbitmq >= 3.12.0, < 3.12.7 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:rabbitmq:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-46118

cvelogic Threat Intelligence