VulnerabilityPublished 29 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-114613: MessagePack · Unbounded memory leak in msgpack C extension on strict_map_key validation failure

Affects bagelsSource GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-114613· High 7.5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 0.3.12_15 soon.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 07:30 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

Thin evidence

One scorer or none

CVSS scores by source
CNA (GitHub_M)	CVSS 3.1	7.5

Patch: Available – fixed in 0.3.12_15

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 22 Oct 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 bagels to 0.3.12_15.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Homebrewbagels`pkg:brew/bagels`Other threats	Affected >=0.3.6 <0.3.12_15	Fixed in 0.3.12_15

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

Description

### Impact The msgpack-python C extension (`msgpack._cmsgpack`) leaks a decoded map value when deserialization rejects a key with `strict_map_key=True` (the default). Repeated malformed inputs can cause unbounded process memory growth and denial of service in applications that deserialize attacker-controlled MessagePack data. Both `unpackb()` and the streaming `Unpacker` API are affected. The pure-Python fallback does not exhibit this leak in the reported tests. The report measured approximately 4 MiB retained per failed parse and 100 MiB after 25 failed parses on Windows with Python 3.14 and msgpack 1.2.2. These are reporter-provided results. ### Additional impact: stale parser-stack references The reference-ownership audit performed while fixing this leak found an additional memory-safety issue in the streaming `Unpacker`. After `unpack()` completed a nested container, an inactive parser-stack slot could retain a non-owning pointer to the decoded object. A subsequent `skip()` could reactivate that slot. If parsing then failed, context cleanup treated the stale pointer as an owned reference and decremented it. This corrupts the object's reference count and can result in a use-after-free or double `Py_DECREF` when its actual owners later release it. Although few users use this API, but those who do may experience crashes or unexpected errors due to a use-after-free. ### Details In `msgpack/unpack.h`, `unpack_callback_map_item()` rejects keys that are neither `str` nor `bytes`. At this point the map value has already been constructed. The early error return does not release the value reference. In `msgpack/unpack_template.h`, the value is held in the local `obj` in `unpack_execute()`. The `CT_MAP_VALUE` error path jumps to `_failed` without decrementing that reference. Cleanup of the parser stack does not recover the value because it is not stored in the stack. The fallback checks the key before decoding the value. ### Affected versions The report reproduces the issue on **1.2.2** and reports it on development commit `475c1b7`. The affected-product field lists the reproduced release only; it is not a claim that earlier releases are unaffected. The earliest affected release needs confirmation: the report's summary says 1.1.x through 1.2.2, while its root-cause analysis attributes introduction to commit `cd81370` (PR #673). Resolve this discrepancy before publishing a definitive affected-version range. ### Reproduction Run in a disposable local process with the C extension installed: ```python import msgpack payload = msgpack.packb({42: b"A" * (4 * 1024 * 1024)}, use_bin_type=True) msgpack.unpackb(payload) # Raises ValueError; the report observes a 4 MiB leak. ``` Streaming API trigger: ```python import msgpack payload = msgpack.packb({42: b"A" * (4 * 1024 * 1024)}, use_bin_type=True) u = msgpack.Unpacker() u.feed(payload) list(u) # Same strict_map_key error path. ``` ### Workarounds The pure-Python fallback is reported not to leak on this path and may be used as a temporary workaround after application compatibility and performance checks. Request-size and rate limits may reduce the impact but do not eliminate cumulative leakage.

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