Docker Engine before 18.09 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (dockerd memory consumption) via a large integer in a --cpuset-mems

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

• docker enginebefore 18.09
• redhat enterprise linux server7.0

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

• CVE-2026-33997Moby: Off-by-one error in plugin privilege validation
  32Monitor
• CVE-2026-34040Moby: AuthZ plugin bypass with oversized request body
  31Monitor
• CVE-2026-42306Moby: Race condition in docker cp allows bind mount redirection to host path
  28Monitor
• CVE-2020-13401An issue was discovered in Docker Engine before 19.03.11.
  25Monitor
• CVE-2026-41568Moby: Race condition in docker cp allows creation of arbitrary empty files on the host via symlink swap
  24Monitor

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Root cause

Code that parses nested structures sets no depth or size limit. A small input can turn into a disproportionate processing load.

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

1function expand(node) {2  return node.children.map(expand);3}

1const MAX_DEPTH = 32;2function expand(node, depth = 0) {3  if (depth > MAX_DEPTH) throw new Error("too deep");4  return node.children.map((c) => expand(c, depth + 1));5}

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.