VulnerabilityPublished 25 Mar 2026Updated 9 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-27889: nats-server · Integer Overflow or Wraparound

Affects nats-serverSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 2.12.5 or 2.11.14 soon.

Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 19:04 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 48% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 2.12.5, 2.11.14

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 25 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 29 Oct 2026.

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.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity 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 nats-server and nats-io/nats-server to 2.12.5 or 2.11.14.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
nats-ionats-server	Affected >=2.12.0 <2.12.5	Fixed in 2.12.5
nats-ionats-server	Affected >=2.2.0 <2.11.14	Fixed in 2.11.14
GitHubnats-io/nats-server`pkg:github/nats-io/nats-server`Other threats	Affected <2.11.14 <2.12.5	Fixed in 2.11.14 2.12.5

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

AI-suggested

A fix is available in nats-server versions 2.11.14 and 2.12.5. Users are strongly advised to upgrade to these or later versions to remediate the vulnerability. If upgrading is not immediately possible, mitigating exposure by restricting access to the WebSockets port from untrusted endpoints or disabling WebSockets usage can reduce risk. Red Hat notes that no mitigation currently meets their criteria for ease of use and applicability, so patching is the recommended approach.

Description

NATS-Server is a High-Performance server for NATS.io, a cloud and edge native messaging system. Starting in version 2.2.0 and prior to versions 2.11.14 and 2.12.5, a missing sanity check on a WebSockets frame could trigger a server panic in the nats-server. This happens before authentication, and so is exposed to anyone who can connect to the websockets port. Versions 2.11.14 and 2.12.5 contains a fix. A workaround is available. The vulnerability only affects deployments which use WebSockets and which expose the network port to untrusted end-points. If one is able to do so, a defense in depth of restricting either of these will mitigate the attack.

Impact

Successful exploitation results in a denial of service by causing the nats-server to panic and crash. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity. The attack can be performed remotely without authentication and requires network access to the WebSockets port. The vulnerability affects availability of the service.

Summary

NATS-Server, a high-performance messaging system, contains an integer overflow or wraparound vulnerability (CWE-190) triggered by malformed WebSockets frames. This occurs before authentication due to a missing sanity check, allowing any unauthenticated user able to connect to the WebSockets port to cause a server panic and denial of service. The vulnerability affects versions >=2.2.0 and <2.11.14 and <2.12.5. Fixed in versions 2.11.14 and 2.12.5. The vulnerability requires the deployment to expose the WebSockets port to untrusted networks. Red Hat advisory confirms the impact and lack of currently effective mitigations meeting their criteria, recommending upgrading to fixed versions where possible.

CWE-190Integer Overflow or Wraparound (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: Medium
The product performs a calculation that can produce an integer overflow or wraparound when the logic assumes that the resulting value will always be larger than the original value. This occurs when an integer value is incremented to a value that is too large to store in the associated representation. When this occurs, the value may become a very small or negative number.
Requirements
Ensure that all protocols are strictly defined, such that all out-of-bounds behavior can be identified simply, and require strict conformance to the protocol.
Requirements · Language Selection
Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.4.3 (opens in a new tab)
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Forced Integer Overflow (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).
CWE-1286Improper Validation of Syntactic Correctness of Input (opens in a new tab)
Base weakness
The product receives input that is expected to be well-formed - i.e., to comply with a certain syntax - but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input complies with the syntax.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.3 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
SQL Injection (opens in a new tab)
NoSQL Injection (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 13 Aug 2026, 16:31 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-190, CWE-1286

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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