CVE-2026-96288 in Thrift
Summary
by MITRE • 10/02/2026
Uncontrolled Recursion, Allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability in Apache Thrift Erlang bindings.
This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.25.0, which fixes the issue.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/02/2026
The vulnerability identified as an uncontrolled recursion and resource allocation flaw within the Erlang bindings of Apache Thrift prior to version 0.25.0 represents a significant risk to system stability and availability. This class of vulnerabilities falls under the broader category of improper input validation leading to denial-of-service conditions, specifically mapping to CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion in Function Calls and CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling. The Apache Thrift framework is widely used for defining cross-language service interfaces and generating client-server code across various programming languages, including Erlang. When the Erlang bindings process incoming requests that trigger deep recursive calls without adequate depth limits or stack size constraints, they can exhaust system resources such as memory or CPU cycles allocated to the BEAM virtual machine instance handling the request.
From a technical perspective, the flaw stems from how the Thrift serializer and deserializer handle nested data structures or specific protocol interactions within the Erlang environment. If an attacker crafts a malicious payload that induces recursive processing loops during serialization or deserialization of messages, the application may enter an infinite or excessively deep recursion cycle. In functional languages like Erlang, while garbage collection is robust, unbounded stack growth due to unchecked recursion can still lead to process crashes or excessive memory consumption. This behavior allows for resource exhaustion attacks where a single malicious request can consume disproportionate amounts of system resources, effectively degrading the performance of the service and potentially causing it to become unavailable to legitimate users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is primarily centered on availability rather than confidentiality or integrity. An attacker could exploit this flaw by sending specially crafted Thrift messages that trigger the recursive behavior, leading to a denial-of-service condition. This aligns with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1496: Resource Hijacking, where adversaries consume resources to disrupt service delivery. In production environments running high-throughput services, such an attack could cause cascading failures if not properly isolated or rate-limited at the infrastructure level. The lack of throttling mechanisms means that even moderate volumes of malicious traffic can overwhelm the Erlang nodes hosting the Thrift server implementation.
To mitigate this risk, organizations relying on Apache Thrift with Erlang bindings must upgrade to version 0.25.0 or later, where these issues have been addressed through improved input validation and recursion depth controls. Until an upgrade is feasible, administrators should implement network-level rate limiting and request size restrictions to prevent the delivery of excessively large or deeply nested payloads that could trigger the vulnerability. Additionally, deploying web application firewalls with rules capable of detecting anomalous serialization patterns can provide a layer of defense against exploitation attempts. Regular monitoring for unusual spikes in memory usage or CPU consumption on servers running Thrift services is also recommended as an early warning indicator of potential abuse targeting this flaw.