Apache Kafka: Denial of service in Kafka Streams and client deserializers via unbounded memory allocation
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-111551 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | apache |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-10-28 17:17:39 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-10-28 20:17:19 UTC |
| Description | Several Kafka deserialization paths read a size or count field from input data and use it directly to allocate an array, collection, or byte buffer, with no check against the bytes actually available. A small crafted input can therefore declare a very large size and force a multi-gigabyte allocation. The affected paths are, in Kafka Streams, ProcessorRecordContext (header count), ChangedDeserializer (varint value length), CombinedKeySchema (foreign-key length, which could also produce a negative size), ProcessorMetadata (key length), and AssignmentInfo group-assignment decoding; and, in the clients library, ListDeserializer (used by ListSerde). Impact: An attacker can trigger the oversized allocation and raise an OutOfMemoryError that crashes the affected consumer or Kafka Streams thread; the broker and the rest of the cluster are unaffected. The reachable surface depends on the path: writing a crafted record to a Streams application's internal changelog or repartition topics, or committing crafted offset metadata to its consumer group (Streams internal paths); writing a crafted record to any topic that a consumer reads with ListSerde (ListDeserializer); or, as a member of a Streams consumer group, returning crafted assignment data when elected leader (AssignmentInfo). Because a crafted record remains in its topic, the error can recur on restart. The record size limit (max.message.bytes) does not help, because the allocation is driven by a size field rather than by the input's length. Mitigation: Upgrade to Apache Kafka 4.2.2, 4.3.2, or 4.4.0. Where authorization is enabled, restrict write access to each application's internal topics and consumer group to its own principal, and restrict who can produce to topics that are consumed with ListSerde. Resolution: From Apache Kafka 4.2.2, 4.3.2, and 4.4.0: these deserialization paths validate the declared size against the remaining input before allocating and reject input that fails the check. |
Risk And Classification
Problem Types: CWE-20 | CWE-400 | CWE-789 | CWE-789 CWE-789 Memory allocation with excessive size value | CWE-400 CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption | CWE-20 CWE-20 Improper input validation
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | Apache Software Foundation | Apache Kafka | affected 0.10.0.0 4.1.2 semver | Not specified |
| CNA | Apache Software Foundation | Apache Kafka | affected 4.2.0 4.2.1 semver | Not specified |
| CNA | Apache Software Foundation | Apache Kafka | affected 4.3.0 4.3.1 semver | Not specified |
| CNA | Apache Software Foundation | Apache Kafka | affected 0.10.0.0 4.1.2 semver | Not specified |
| CNA | Apache Software Foundation | Apache Kafka | affected 4.2.0 4.2.1 semver | Not specified |
| CNA | Apache Software Foundation | Apache Kafka | affected 4.3.0 4.3.1 semver | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| kafka.apache.org/cve-list | [email protected] | kafka.apache.org | |
| www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/10/28/13 | af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 | www.openwall.com | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
Vendor Comments And Credit
Discovery Credit
CNA: Peyton Kennedy <[email protected]> (en)
CNA: Bartlomiej Dmitruk <[email protected]> (en)
CNA: Mike Read (GitHub: Michael-JRead) (en)
CNA: Matthias J. Sax <[email protected]> (en)
CNA: Lucy Liu <[email protected]> (en)
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.