CVE-2026-15972: CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in HashiCorp Consul
Consul Community Edition and Consul Enterprise 1.13.0 through 2.0.2 are vulnerable to an unauthenticated denial of service through unbounded connection acceptance on the external gRPC listeners. A remote attacker may exhaust agent file descriptors, goroutines, and memory by opening many incomplete connections, potentially preventing legitimate clients from connecting. This vulnerability, CVE-2026-15972, is fixed in Consul 2.0.3 and Consul Enterprise 1.21.17, 1.22.11, and 2.0.3.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
CVE-2026-15972 is a resource exhaustion vulnerability in HashiCorp Consul Community Edition and Enterprise versions 1.13.0 through 2.0.2. It arises from the lack of limits or throttling on incoming connections to external gRPC listeners, allowing unauthenticated attackers to open many incomplete connections. This leads to exhaustion of file descriptors, goroutines, and memory on the agent, resulting in denial of service. The vulnerability is addressed in Consul 2.0.3 and Enterprise versions 1.21.17, 1.22.11, and 2.0.3.
Potential Impact
An unauthenticated remote attacker can cause a denial of service by exhausting critical system resources such as file descriptors, goroutines, and memory on the Consul agent. This prevents legitimate clients from establishing connections, impacting availability. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity reported.
Mitigation Recommendations
A fix is available and users should upgrade to Consul 2.0.3 or later, or to the specified fixed Enterprise versions (1.21.17, 1.22.11, 2.0.3). Patch status is confirmed by the vendor advisory. Until upgraded, systems remain vulnerable to denial of service via unbounded connection acceptance on external gRPC listeners.
CVE-2026-15972: CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in HashiCorp Consul
Description
Consul Community Edition and Consul Enterprise 1.13.0 through 2.0.2 are vulnerable to an unauthenticated denial of service through unbounded connection acceptance on the external gRPC listeners. A remote attacker may exhaust agent file descriptors, goroutines, and memory by opening many incomplete connections, potentially preventing legitimate clients from connecting. This vulnerability, CVE-2026-15972, is fixed in Consul 2.0.3 and Consul Enterprise 1.21.17, 1.22.11, and 2.0.3.
CVSS v3.1
Score 7.5high
Affected software
HashiCorp
Consul
HashiCorp
Consul Enterprise
pkg:github/Consul EnterpriseRun on your own infrastructure? Check whether these packages are installed with threat-finder — our free open-source scanner.
Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
CVE-2026-15972 is a resource exhaustion vulnerability in HashiCorp Consul Community Edition and Enterprise versions 1.13.0 through 2.0.2. It arises from the lack of limits or throttling on incoming connections to external gRPC listeners, allowing unauthenticated attackers to open many incomplete connections. This leads to exhaustion of file descriptors, goroutines, and memory on the agent, resulting in denial of service. The vulnerability is addressed in Consul 2.0.3 and Enterprise versions 1.21.17, 1.22.11, and 2.0.3.
Potential Impact
An unauthenticated remote attacker can cause a denial of service by exhausting critical system resources such as file descriptors, goroutines, and memory on the Consul agent. This prevents legitimate clients from establishing connections, impacting availability. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity reported.
Mitigation Recommendations
A fix is available and users should upgrade to Consul 2.0.3 or later, or to the specified fixed Enterprise versions (1.21.17, 1.22.11, 2.0.3). Patch status is confirmed by the vendor advisory. Until upgraded, systems remain vulnerable to denial of service via unbounded connection acceptance on external gRPC listeners.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- HashiCorp
- Date Reserved
- 2026-07-16T15:32:34.132Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 6a763509bf8831d5390b0144
Added to database: 08/07/2026, 19:42:01 UTC
Last enriched: 08/15/2026, 15:13:48 UTC
Last updated: 09/21/2026, 22:01:32 UTC
Views: 63
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