CVE-2026-86040: libp2p: Unbounded RPC decode + synchronous subscription processing in @libp2p/floodsub allows unauthenticated DoS

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-09-17 · updated 2026-09-24
Weakness: CWE-400

Description

libp2p is a JavaScript implementation of the libp2p networking stack. Prior to 11.0.26, @libp2p/floodsub accepts unauthenticated RPC frames on /floodsub/1.0.0 through PeerStreams.attachInboundStream in packages/floodsub/src/peer-streams.ts without protobuf element limits, then processRpc and processRpcSubOpt in packages/floodsub/src/floodsub.ts synchronously process the subscriptions array without a per-frame cap. A single bounded-size frame can decode into millions of empty subscription entries that block the event loop, while hundreds of thousands of unique-topic SUBSCRIBE entries allocate PeerSet objects in this.topics that are not removed after peer removal or stop. Empty entries cause CPU exhaustion but do not grow this.topics; persistent memory growth requires unique topics. The subscription path bypasses message signature validation and the message-only processing queue, allowing a remote peer to cause sustained CPU denial of service, memory exhaustion, out-of-memory termination, and node unavailability. The issue is fixed in version 11.0.26.

Affected products

@libp2p floodsub: before 11.0.26
libp2p js-libp2p: before 11.0.26

References

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