CVE-2026-48779 | ws: Memory exhaustion DoS from tiny fragments and data chunks

Exp

ws is an open source WebSocket client and server for Node.js. All versions from 1.1.0 up to (but not including) 5.2.5, from 6.0.0 up to 6.2.4, from 7.0.0 up to 7.5.11, and from 8.0.0 up to 8.21.0 are affected by a memory exhaustion DoS vulnerability. A peer can send a high volume of exceptionally small fragments and data chunks, with modest network traffic, to force the remote peer into allocating and holding structural wrappers that consume far more memory than the default documented message-size limit, leading to process termination due to OOM. This issue has been fixed in versions 5.2.5, 6.2.4, 7.5.11, and 8.21.0.

Published: 2026-06-17 Last update: 2026-07-07 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-48779 is rated High Exploit Risk (63.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.78%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-48779

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-48779

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 2026-07-01 0.73% 0.78% +0.06%
2 2026-06-30 0.52% 0.73% +0.20%
3 2026-06-23 0.52%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-48779

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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.
3.9 3.6 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-48779

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-48779

GHSA-96hv-2xvq-fx4p · Severity: high · Ecosystem: npm — ws: Memory exhaustion DoS from tiny fragments and data chunks

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-48779

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-48779 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (node-ws), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 3, resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-48779
suse medium CVE-2026-48779 severity moderate: SUSE including 40 source package names (corepack22, corepack24, …), 139 product×package rows across 19 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, … (19 product lines)): Known Not Affected 139. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-48779/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-48779 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (node-ws), 7 status rows across 7 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, upstream): needs-triage 7. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-48779

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-48779

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ws_project ws >= 1.1.0, < 5.2.5 cpe:2.3:a:ws_project:ws:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
ws_project ws >= 6.0.0, < 6.2.4 cpe:2.3:a:ws_project:ws:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
ws_project ws >= 7.0.0, < 7.5.11 cpe:2.3:a:ws_project:ws:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
ws_project ws >= 8.0.0, < 8.21.0 cpe:2.3:a:ws_project:ws:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2026-48779

URL Tags
https://github.com/websockets/ws/commit/86d3e8a5fb0246ed373860c5fbb0de88824a27f7 Patch
https://github.com/websockets/ws/commit/b5372ac67bb97a773727b8e9f5035a8123556d53 Patch
https://github.com/websockets/ws/commit/bca91adf15677e47dbe4f959653452727be28b94 Patch
https://github.com/websockets/ws/commit/fd36cd864fcdf62a08273a99e19a7d975401fee8 Patch
https://github.com/websockets/ws/security/advisories/GHSA-96hv-2xvq-fx4p Exploit Mitigation Patch Vendor Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:29197
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33155
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33160
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33163
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33173
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33183
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33574
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:34342
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-48779
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2489661
https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-48779.json
cvelogic Threat Intelligence