← Back to CVE Explorer

CVE-2026-118391

Full vulnerability record from the local CVENow database.

Description

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in elixir-ecto ecto allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to exhaust memory in the application and in the database server by sending requests with distinct JSON keys or list lengths where the application interpolates them into json_extract_path/2, field[^key] or splice/1. Ecto caches prepared queries per repository in an ETS table with no size limit and no eviction. Interpolated JSON path elements become part of the query expression instead of its parameters, and splice/1 expands into one placeholder per element, so every distinct key or list length creates a new cache entry. With ecto_sql each entry is also a new prepared statement on the database connection that runs it. None of this memory is released until the processes restart. This issue affects ecto: from 3.4.0 before 3.14.3.

Severity
HIGH
CVSS score
8.9 (v4.0)
Vulnerability status
Received
Source identifier
6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
Published
2026-11-04 14:17:29.983000
Last modified
2026-11-04 14:17:29.983000
View original CVE JSON
{
  "id": "CVE-2026-118391",
  "sourceIdentifier": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db",
  "published": "2026-11-04T14:17:29.983",
  "lastModified": "2026-11-04T14:17:29.983",
  "vulnStatus": "Received",
  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in elixir-ecto ecto allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to exhaust memory in the application and in the database server by sending requests with distinct JSON keys or list lengths where the application interpolates them into json_extract_path/2, field[^key] or splice/1. Ecto caches prepared queries per repository in an ETS table with no size limit and no eviction. Interpolated JSON path elements become part of the query expression instead of its parameters, and splice/1 expands into one placeholder per element, so every distinct key or list length creates a new cache entry. With ecto_sql each entry is also a new prepared statement on the database connection that runs it. None of this memory is released until the processes restart.\n\nThis issue affects ecto: from 3.4.0 before 3.14.3."
    }
  ],
  "affected": [
    {
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db",
      "affectedData": [
        {
          "vendor": "elixir-ecto",
          "product": "ecto",
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "collectionURL": "https://repo.hex.pm",
          "packageName": "ecto",
          "cpes": [
            "cpe:2.3:a:elixir-ecto:ecto:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
          ],
          "repo": "https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto",
          "packageURL": "pkg:hex/ecto",
          "versions": [
            {
              "version": "3.4.0",
              "lessThan": "3.14.3",
              "versionType": "semver",
              "status": "affected"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "vendor": "elixir-ecto",
          "product": "ecto",
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "collectionURL": "https://github.com",
          "packageName": "elixir-ecto/ecto",
          "cpes": [
            "cpe:2.3:a:elixir-ecto:ecto:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
          ],
          "repo": "https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto",
          "packageURL": "pkg:github/elixir-ecto/ecto",
          "versions": [
            {
              "version": "cb2f03964dac324a9771f84f5088e395326e6de8",
              "lessThan": "eef014ad090d27d1a5b69c0e32a50eabd44ab3bb",
              "versionType": "git",
              "status": "affected"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "metrics": {
    "cvssMetricV40": [
      {
        "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db",
        "type": "Secondary",
        "cvssData": {
          "version": "4.0",
          "vectorString": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/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",
          "baseScore": 8.9,
          "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
          "attackVector": "NETWORK",
          "attackComplexity": "LOW",
          "attackRequirements": "PRESENT",
          "privilegesRequired": "NONE",
          "userInteraction": "NONE",
          "vulnConfidentialityImpact": "NONE",
          "vulnIntegrityImpact": "NONE",
          "vulnAvailabilityImpact": "HIGH",
          "subConfidentialityImpact": "NONE",
          "subIntegrityImpact": "NONE",
          "subAvailabilityImpact": "HIGH",
          "exploitMaturity": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "confidentialityRequirement": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "integrityRequirement": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "availabilityRequirement": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedAttackVector": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedAttackComplexity": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedAttackRequirements": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedPrivilegesRequired": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedUserInteraction": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedVulnConfidentialityImpact": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedVulnIntegrityImpact": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedVulnAvailabilityImpact": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedSubConfidentialityImpact": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedSubIntegrityImpact": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "modifiedSubAvailabilityImpact": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "Safety": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "Automatable": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "Recovery": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "valueDensity": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "vulnerabilityResponseEffort": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "providerUrgency": "NOT_DEFINED"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "weaknesses": [
    {
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db",
      "type": "Secondary",
      "description": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-770"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "references": [
    {
      "url": "https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-118391.html",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://ecto.hexdocs.pm/Ecto.Query.API.html#json_extract_path/2",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://ecto.hexdocs.pm/Ecto.Query.API.html#splice/1",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/commit/cb2f03964dac324a9771f84f5088e395326e6de8",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/commit/d0e97d8a6e274c81c25fbf08087da8d8b9bae0ea",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/commit/eb03f45b999e2bf67ffae92811233eb6e56dba55",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/commit/eef014ad090d27d1a5b69c0e32a50eabd44ab3bb",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/issues/1031",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/issues/4470",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/security/advisories/GHSA-cxjx-vmm2-qr8r",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-118391",
      "source": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db"
    }
  ]
}