CVE-2026-26313
Published: 19 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-26313 is a high-severity Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) vulnerability in Ethereum Go Ethereum. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 9.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Likely Mitigating ControlsAI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
This control implements explicit throttling on session allocation, addressing the weakness of allocating resources without limits.
Plan testing exercises resource allocation limits and throttling during simulated failures, directly addressing weaknesses that allow unbounded resource use.
Contingency plan updates ensure recovery strategies address unbounded resource allocation, making it harder for attackers to exploit lack of throttling to cause prolonged outages.
Provides continuity when unbounded resource allocation at the primary site leads to exhaustion and downtime.
Alternate services allow operations to continue when primary allocation of resources lacks limits or throttling.
Explicit planning of security-related actions requires defining limits, windows, and resource allocations, making allocation without throttling far less likely.
Measures of performance include tracking allocation behavior and throttling effectiveness, reducing the window for resource exhaustion attacks.
Imposes an inactivity-based limit on network resource allocation, throttling the number of concurrently held connections.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Crafted P2P message triggers unbounded memory allocation (CWE-770) leading to application crash/DoS, directly matching application exploitation for endpoint denial of service.
NVD Description
go-ethereum (geth) is a golang execution layer implementation of the Ethereum protocol. Prior to version 1.17.0, an attacker can cause high memory usage by sending a specially-crafted p2p message. The issue is resolved in the v1.17.0 release.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-26313 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in go-ethereum (geth), a Golang implementation of the Ethereum protocol's execution layer. Versions prior to 1.17.0 are affected, where an attacker can trigger high memory usage by sending a specially-crafted peer-to-peer (P2P) message. The flaw stems from CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H), indicating high availability impact through resource exhaustion.
Any unauthenticated attacker with network access can exploit this vulnerability due to its low attack complexity and lack of required privileges or user interaction. By transmitting the malicious P2P message to a vulnerable geth node, the attacker causes excessive memory allocation, potentially leading to node instability, crashes, or complete denial of service for Ethereum network participants relying on the affected instance.
The vulnerability is fully resolved in go-ethereum version 1.17.0. Administrators should upgrade to this release or later to mitigate the issue. Additional details are available in the official release notes at https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/releases/tag/v1.17.0 and the GitHub security advisory at https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/security/advisories/GHSA-689v-6xwf-5jf3.
Details
- CWE(s)