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CVE-2026-54894· NVD / CVE Program· CNA EEF

Atom-table exhaustion denial of service in Guardian via unbounded atom creation from binary keys

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 27/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.47% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: ueberauth guardian 2.4.1, 2952657e42e6341a67e6aaad09d8f0b40ae917cb.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to ueberauth guardian 2.4.1, 2952657e42e6341a67e6aaad09d8f0b40ae917cb or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in ueberauth guardian allows denial of service via unbounded atom creation from attacker-influenced binary input. Guardian.Plug.Keys derives connection and session namespace keys by passing arbitrary binaries to String.to_atom/1. base_key/1 in lib/guardian/plug/keys.ex converts any binary into the atom :"guardian_<input>", and the derived helpers claims_key/1, resource_key/1, and token_key/1 create a second atom on top of that. key_from_other/1 likewise converts a regex-captured binary through String.to_atom/1. The public specs advertise String.t() as a valid argument, so passing a string is documented usage, and higher-level entry points such as Guardian.Plug.current_token(conn, key: key) thread the caller-supplied key straight into these functions. String.to_atom/1 creates a brand-new atom for every previously unseen binary, atoms are never garbage collected, and the BEAM atom table is fixed at roughly 1,048,576 entries by default. An application that routes attacker-influenced data (a tenant identifier, header, or other request input) into a Guardian key therefore mints one permanent atom per distinct value. A modest stream of varied, unauthenticated input permanently consumes the atom table and crashes the BEAM node, taking down every application running on it. This issue affects guardian: from 0.1.0 before 2.4.1.

MediumCVSS 6.9 · v4.0—No exploit Fix available
Published
Aug 1, 2026
Updated
Aug 6, 2026
EPSS
0.4% · 39th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

27

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
27 / 40 · 6.9 / 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 · EEF
6.9
NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2026-54894

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
ueberauthguardian

Affected versions

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

  • ueberauth guardianbefore 2.4.1

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (EEF). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • ueberauth guardian

    • 0.1.0 and later · before 2.4.1affected · semver
    • 7126fa433afc2563fcac0c9aa35193965f8fd5f8 and later · before 2952657e42e6341a67e6aaad09d8f0b40ae917cbaffected · git

Package-level exposure

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

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Hexguardianfrom 0.1.0 · before 2.4.12.4.1

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-55735Guardian.revoke/3 acts on unverified token claims, allowing forged-token session revocation
    32Monitor
  • CVE-2026-55734guardian atom exhaustion in Guardian.Permissions.encode_permissions!/1
    27Monitor
  • CVE-2026-55733Atom-table exhaustion denial of service in Guardian permissions AtomEncoding via unbounded atom creation
    27Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
ueberauth guardian2.4.1Vendor (CNA)
ueberauth guardian2952657e42e6341a67e6aaad09d8f0b40ae917cbVendor (CNA)
Hex:guardian2.4.1Package registry (OSV)

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.

EPSS, last 120 days

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.

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

  • CVE-2026-557330 days apartAtom-table exhaustion denial of service in Guardian permissions AtomEncoding via unbounded atom creation
    27Monitor
  • CVE-2026-557340 days apartguardian atom exhaustion in Guardian.Permissions.encode_permissions!/1
    27Monitor

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

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
X

CVSS vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H/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

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

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References

Show all references (2 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records