CVE-2026-82075 in MongoDB
Summary
by MITRE • 09/08/2026
An uncontrolled resource consumption weakness exists in the request-handling path of the MongoDB sharded-cluster router process. A client that has network access to a router port and has not authenticated can supply connection-monitoring parameters that cause the server to expend CPU resources without any rate limiting, degrading or denying service to legitimate clients. No authentication, elevated privileges, or user interaction is required. Only availability is affected; data confidentiality and integrity are not impacted.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/08/2026
The vulnerability described constitutes a classic uncontrolled resource consumption flaw within the MongoDB sharded-cluster router process, specifically targeting the request-handling path responsible for connection monitoring. This architectural weakness allows an external actor to trigger excessive CPU utilization by supplying specific connection-monitoring parameters without any form of authentication or privilege escalation. The core technical issue lies in the absence of rate limiting mechanisms when processing these particular requests from unauthenticated clients who have network access to a router port. By exploiting this gap, an attacker can force the server to expend significant computational resources on maintaining connections that are effectively maliciously crafted or abused, leading directly to service degradation or complete denial of service for legitimate users attempting to interact with the database cluster.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability aligns closely with CWE-400, which defines uncontrolled resource consumption as a condition where an entity does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of limited resources, potentially causing performance issues or system crashes. In the context of MongoDB's sharded architecture, the router serves as a critical intermediary that directs client requests to appropriate shards. When connection-monitoring parameters are manipulated without bounds checking or throttling, they can create resource exhaustion scenarios similar to those seen in other distributed systems where stateful connections consume memory and CPU cycles indefinitely. The lack of authentication requirement for this specific attack vector means the barrier to entry is minimal; any entity with network connectivity to the exposed port can initiate the abuse, making it a high-risk availability threat that does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity but severely impacts operational continuity.
The impact on system operations is primarily centered around availability, as noted in the description. Legitimate clients experience degraded performance due to resource contention caused by the malicious requests, and in severe cases, the router process may become unresponsive, effectively denying service entirely. This type of attack does not require user interaction or elevated privileges, classifying it as a remote exploit that can be automated easily. The absence of authentication checks for this specific request path represents a significant oversight in security design, allowing low-privileged actors to disrupt high-value infrastructure components. Such vulnerabilities are particularly dangerous in production environments where uptime is critical and the cost of downtime outweighs the effort required by an attacker to sustain the resource exhaustion attack.
To mitigate this vulnerability, immediate remediation should focus on implementing strict rate limiting for all incoming connection-monitoring requests, regardless of authentication status. Network-level controls such as firewalls or intrusion prevention systems can be configured to restrict access to MongoDB router ports from untrusted networks, ensuring that only authorized subnets can initiate connections. Additionally, updating the MongoDB software to a patched version is essential, as vendors typically address these issues by enforcing stricter validation and throttling logic within the request-handling path. Security teams should also monitor for unusual spikes in CPU usage associated with connection establishment activities and consider deploying Web Application Firewalls or API gateways that can inspect and limit the frequency of such requests before they reach the database layer, thereby preserving system stability against resource exhaustion attacks.