@sveltejs/kit has memory amplification DoS vulnerability in Remote Functions binary form deserializer (application/x-sveltekit-formdata)

Description

Summary

The experimental form remote function uses a binary data format containing a representation of submitted form data. A specially-crafted payload can cause the server to allocate a large amount of memory, causing DoS via memory exhaustion.

Details

When a form is submitted to a remote function endpoint, the SvelteKit client encodes the data using a custom format, and POSTs it to the endpoint as a request with an application/x-sveltekit-formdata content type.

The first few bytes of the request body encode the length of the data. SvelteKit will attempt to read the request body up until the specified offset, but if the body is not yet available then an array buffer of that size will be created eagerly to accommodate it as it arrives.

An attacker can force this code path by sending a small payload that specifies a large data length, then stalling the connection. The resulting array buffer will be held in memory, potentially causing memory exhaustion.

Impact

  • Vulnerability type: Availability / memory exhaustion (memory amplification).
  • Who is impacted: SvelteKit apps with experimental.remoteFunctions enabled, and that expose a reachable Remote Form endpoint.
  • Attack: an unauthenticated attacker can repeatedly open connections, send only the 8-byte header/prefix (with large data_length), and stall the body to hold large allocations, exhausting memory.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2026-01-15 18:10:52 UTC
Updated
2026-01-15 22:33:45 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2026-01-15 18:10:52 UTC
NVD published
2026-01-15

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.02% 4.51%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
8.2 4.0
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:P)
Additional preconditions must be present for exploitation.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N)
No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:H)
High availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-789 Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value

Credits

  • hashcoko (reporter)
  • ottomated (remediation_developer)
  • elliott-with-the-longest-name-on-github (remediation_reviewer)

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
npm @sveltejs/kit >= 2.49.0, <= 2.49.4 2.49.5

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence