GHSA-g6gw-c38x-mqfc CVE-2026-84364
Hono: Unbounded dot-notation nesting in `parseBody()` can cause memory exhaustion
- Severity
- 5.3 / 10
- Medium · CVSS 3.1
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- 0.53%
- Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 44.78% of scored vulnerabilities.
- Known exploited
- No
- Not in CISA's catalog
- Weakness
- CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
- Fix
4.13.5- Upgrade hono to this version or later
Description
Summary
When parseBody() expands dot-separated form field names into nested objects, it does not limit the nesting depth or the total number of objects created. A request body well within a normal size limit can therefore allocate an object graph far larger than the request itself, and concurrent requests can exhaust the heap and terminate the process.
Details
Each dot-separated segment of a field name creates an intermediate object. Neither the segments within a single field name nor the total across a request was bounded, and empty segments were preserved, so a field name could encode one nesting level per byte.
Both shapes produce the effect: a single deeply dotted field name, and a large number of shallowly dotted ones within one body. A request body size limit does not prevent it, because the amplification happens after the body has been accepted.
Dot-notation parsing is not enabled by default.
Impact
An attacker who can reach an endpoint that parses request bodies with dot-notation enabled can send concurrent requests whose memory cost is disproportionate to their size.
This may lead to:
- exhaustion of the JavaScript heap and termination of the server process
- the service remaining unavailable until it is restarted
This issue affects applications that explicitly enable dot-notation parsing. Applications using the default behaviour are not affected.
Affected versions
npm
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| hono | < 4.13.5 |
4.13.5 |
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 → 4.13.5
- npm
npm install hono@4.13.5- yarn
yarn add hono@4.13.5- pnpm
pnpm add hono@4.13.5
Severity breakdown
CVSS 3.1 5.3
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
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
Advisories
Packages
Other links
Timeline
- Published
- Last updated by the source
- Latest EPSS score
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why 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-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 |
| GHSA-8j4g-w8fx-2239 Hono: ReDoS in CORS middleware via Access-Control-Request-Headers | Medium | Also affects hono |
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