CVE-2026-22259VulnerabilityPublished 27 Jan 2026

CVE-2026-22259: OISF suricata · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Affects OISF suricataSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 8.0.3 or 7.0.14 soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 49% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 8.0.3, 7.0.14

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Jan 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade suricata to 8.0.3 or 7.0.14; oisf/suricata to 7.0.14.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
OISFsuricata	Affected <7.0.14 >=8.0.0 <8.0.3	Fixed in 8.0.3 7.0.14
GitHuboisf/suricata`pkg:github/oisf/suricata`Other threats	Affected <7.0.14	Fixed in 7.0.14

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

European organizations should prioritize upgrading Suricata to version 7.0.14 or 8.0.3 and later to apply the official patch that addresses this vulnerability. Until upgrades can be performed, disabling the DNP3 parser in the suricata.yaml configuration file is a practical workaround to prevent exploitation, noting that this may reduce visibility into DNP3 traffic. Network administrators should monitor Suricata logs and system memory usage closely for signs of abnormal resource consumption. Implementing network segmentation to isolate ICS networks and limit exposure of Suricata instances to untrusted sources can reduce attack surface. Additionally, deploying rate limiting or traffic filtering for DNP3 traffic at network boundaries can help mitigate the risk of crafted packets reaching Suricata. Regular vulnerability scanning and configuration audits should include checks for Suricata versions and parser settings. Finally, organizations should maintain incident response readiness to quickly address potential denial-of-service events impacting IDS/IPS availability.

Description

Suricata is a network IDS, IPS and NSM engine. Prior to versions 8.0.3 and 7.0.14, specially crafted traffic can cause Suricata to consume large amounts of memory while parsing DNP3 traffic. This can lead to the process slowing down and running out of memory, potentially leading to it getting killed by the OOM killer. Versions 8.0.3 or 7.0.14 contain a patch. As a workaround, disable the DNP3 parser in the suricata yaml (disabled by default).

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to the availability of network security monitoring systems, particularly those using Suricata to monitor industrial control systems (ICS) and critical infrastructure networks that utilize the DNP3 protocol. Disruption of Suricata due to memory exhaustion can lead to blind spots in network intrusion detection and prevention, increasing the risk of undetected attacks or operational disruptions. Critical sectors such as energy, manufacturing, transportation, and utilities in Europe often rely on ICS protocols like DNP3, making them vulnerable to targeted denial-of-service attacks exploiting this flaw. The inability of Suricata to process traffic effectively could delay incident detection and response, potentially leading to broader operational impacts. Although confidentiality and integrity are not directly affected, the loss of availability in security monitoring can indirectly increase the risk of successful cyberattacks. Organizations with regulatory obligations for critical infrastructure protection in Europe could face compliance and operational risks if this vulnerability is exploited.

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place.
Architecture and Design
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or; uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Sustained Client Engagement (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).
CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #25
The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.
Requirements
Clearly specify the minimum and maximum expectations for capabilities, and dictate which behaviors are acceptable when resource allocation reaches limits.
Architecture and Design
Limit the amount of resources that are accessible to unprivileged users. Set per-user limits for resources. Allow the system administrator to define these limits. Be careful to avoid CWE-410.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.1 (opens in a new tab)
V11.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Exponential Data Expansion (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data Parameter Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Jan 2026, 17:35 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-400, CWE-770

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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