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GHSA-9vqf-7f2p-gf9v CVE-2026-44456

Hono: bodyLimit() can be bypassed for chunked / unknown-length requests

Medium npm
Severity
6.5 / 10
Medium · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS)
0.22%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 12.40% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Fix
4.12.16
Upgrade hono to this version or later

Description

Summary

bodyLimit() does not reliably enforce maxSize for requests without a usable Content-Length (e.g. Transfer-Encoding: chunked). Oversized requests can reach handlers and return 200 instead of 413.

Details

For chunked / unknown-length requests, bodyLimit() wraps the body in a stream that counts bytes asynchronously, then runs the handler before the size decision is final. The 413 is only applied afterwards by checking c.error.

This lets the limit be bypassed when:

  • the handler does not read the body,
  • the handler reads only the first chunk(s) and returns, or
  • the handler reads the body but swallows the read error in try/catch.

In all three cases the handler returns 200 before the limit check completes (or its result is observed).

The fix is to enforce the size decision before next() runs, instead of retrofitting the response via c.error afterwards.

Impact

Applications relying on bodyLimit() as a hard boundary can be bypassed: oversized chunked requests can reach handler logic and return successful responses. Per-request data exposure is bounded by maxSize, but the documented guarantee — "oversized requests are rejected before business logic runs" — does not hold.

Credits

  • @lalalala5678 (slow chunked / early return variants)
  • @Jvr2022 (error handling bypass)

Affected versions

npm

PackageVulnerableFixed in
hono
< 4.12.16
4.12.16

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

hono npm → 4.12.16

npm
npm install hono@4.12.16
yarn
yarn add hono@4.12.16
pnpm
pnpm add hono@4.12.16

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 6.5

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

Weakness

CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

How to prevent it
  • Architecture and Design: Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place. The login application should be protected against DoS attacks as much as possible. Limiting the database access, perhaps by caching result sets, can help minimize the resources expended. To further limit the potential for a DoS attack, consider tracking the rate of requests received from users and blocking requests that exceed a defined rate threshold.
  • Architecture and Design: Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed. The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question. The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute -- and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.
  • Architecture and Design: Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
  • Implementation: Ensure that all failures in resource allocation place the system into a safe posture.

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Last updated by the source
  3. Latest EPSS score
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
GHSA-5r4p-p66f-jhc7
Hono: `serveStatic` decodes the request path a second time, leading to bypass of middleware on static paths
Medium Also affects hono
GHSA-hxh3-vqpv-xpqv
hono/jsx renders plain strings unescaped in boundary components, leading to XSS
Low Also affects hono
GHSA-gqvv-2mrq-wpjv
Hono: Incomplete fix for CVE-2026-39408: `toSSG()` still writes files outside the output directory
Medium Also affects hono
GHSA-g6gw-c38x-mqfc
Hono: Unbounded dot-notation nesting in `parseBody()` can cause memory exhaustion
Medium Also affects hono
GHSA-crvj-82cr-hjcx
Hono: Query parser reads parameters after the URL fragment, causing cache-key and proxy interpretation differentials
Medium Also affects hono
GHSA-f23p-vx2j-j53r
Hono: `memo()` retains SSR output across requests, leading to cross-user data disclosure
Medium Also affects hono
GHSA-79qm-7rj5-m7r9
Hono: Proxy Helper does not remove response headers listed in the `Connection` header
Low Also affects hono
GHSA-54fx-42gc-7vw4
Hono: Algorithmic Complexity DoS in Language Middleware
Medium Also affects hono
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