RabbitMQ: Shovel Management Atom Exhaustion Allows Persistent Broker-Wide Denial of Service
RabbitMQ is a messaging and streaming broker. From 4.2.0 until 4.2.9 and 4.3.3, the Shovel parameter parser converted attacker-controlled runtime parameter values into non-garbage-collected Erlang atoms before bounding them or checking a fixed allowlist. Exploitation requires network access to the Management HTTP API, valid credentials with both the management and policymaker tags, permission to set Shovel runtime parameters on a vhost, and the rabbitmq_shovel and rabbitmq_shovel_management plugins to be enabled. The attacker can exhaust the node-wide atom table and deny service, and malicious parameters are stored durably and reparsed when workers start, so atom pressure can recur after restart without a live attacker connection. This issue is fixed in versions 4.2.9 and 4.3.3.
- Published
- Sep 25, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 28, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.4% · 26th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-400
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Report tools
Action score
23
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 23 / 40 · 5.9 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.4%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- proof of concept
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- —
- CNA · GitHub_M
- 5.9
- NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.
Affected systems
—
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (GitHub_M). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
rabbitmq rabbitmq-server
- >= 4.3.0, < 4.3.3, >= 4.2.0, < 4.2.9affected
Package-level exposure
OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:14 | rabbitmq-server | all versions | — |
Same product
rabbitmq: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2026-67404RabbitMQ: OAuth2 silent verify_none fallback for JWKS fetch36Monitor
- CVE-2026-67231RabbitMQ: Trust-store whitelist by Issuer+Serial only36Monitor
- CVE-2026-67410RabbitMQ: OAuth2 Client Secret Exposed via Unauthenticated JavaScript Endpoint32Monitor
- CVE-2026-67409RabbitMQ: JWKS Fetch Ignores HTTP Response Status Code - Signing Key Destruction Causes Authentication DoS32Monitor
- CVE-2026-67236RabbitMQ: Plaintext username:password stored in an insecure cookie after successful POST /login32Monitor
- CVE-2026-66079RabbitMQ: Pre-auth AMQP 1.0 array32 zero-width element DoS32Monitor
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
- CVE-2026-674080 days apartRabbitMQ: Stream Management Super-Stream Binding Keys Allocation Allows Low-Privilege Node Denial of Service28Monitor
- CVE-2026-672382 days apartRabbitMQ: Atom-table exhaustion via reply-to queue name decoding28Monitor
- CVE-2026-672260 days apartRabbitMQ: Admin-only atom exhaustion: PUT /api/users tags list27Monitor
- CVE-2026-672282 days apartRabbitMQ: Atom exhaustion: to_atom on runtime-parameter component27Monitor
- CVE-2026-672292 days apartRabbitMQ: Admin-only atom exhaustion: atomize_keys on vhost metadata27Monitor
- CVE-2026-660730 days apartRabbitMQ: Atom table exhaustion via management API node field24Monitor
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
- Administrator privileges are required.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Availability
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- X
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource ConsumptionCVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
nvd-secondary
Root cause
Code that parses nested structures sets no depth or size limit. A small input can turn into a disproportionate processing load.
The bug in code
The whole CWE-400 classA representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.
Vulnerable
function expand(node) { return node.children.map(expand);}Fixed
const MAX_DEPTH = 32;function expand(node, depth = 0) { if (depth > MAX_DEPTH) throw new Error("too deep"); return node.children.map((c) => expand(c, depth + 1));}Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpChange log
No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.
References
- github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.9
- github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.3
- github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/security/advisories/GHSA-8mpg-qw9r-m5cr
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.