CVE-2026-96990 in Thrift
Summary
by MITRE • 10/02/2026
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 identified vulnerability represents a critical flaw within the Erlang bindings of the Apache Thrift framework, specifically categorized under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling. This class of vulnerabilities occurs when an application allocates resources such as memory, CPU cycles, or file descriptors without imposing adequate constraints on the quantity or rate of allocation. In the context of distributed systems and microservices architectures that rely heavily on Apache Thrift for efficient cross-language communication, this flaw poses a significant risk to system stability and availability. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation or limiting logic within the Erlang serialization and deserialization processes, allowing external actors to trigger excessive resource consumption during request processing.
From an operational perspective, this weakness can be exploited by malicious users sending specially crafted Thrift messages that force the server-side Erlang virtual machine to allocate disproportionate amounts of memory or computational resources. Because Erlang is designed for high concurrency with lightweight processes, a lack of throttling mechanisms means that an attacker could potentially spawn thousands of internal processes or consume vast amounts of heap space through rapid, unthrottled request bursts. This behavior directly facilitates Denial-of-Service attacks, where the targeted service becomes unresponsive due to resource exhaustion rather than being compromised for data theft. The impact is particularly severe in production environments handling high volumes of traffic, as even a moderate volume of malicious requests can degrade performance for legitimate users or cause complete system crashes.
The technical root cause lies in the absence of strict limits on how much memory or processing power is allocated per request or session within the Erlang bindings prior to version 0.25.0. Without these safeguards, the framework does not adequately monitor or restrict the growth of data structures during deserialization. This aligns with common attack patterns observed in modern application security frameworks, such as those described by MITRE ATT&CK under techniques related to Resource Hijacking and Denial of Service. Attackers can leverage this flaw to disrupt service continuity, leading to financial losses and reputational damage for organizations dependent on the reliability of their Thrift-based services.
To mitigate this vulnerability, immediate action is required to upgrade Apache Thrift to version 0.25.0 or later, where these resource allocation constraints have been implemented and validated by the development community. In addition to upgrading, administrators should implement network-level rate limiting and request throttling at the load balancer or API gateway layer to provide an additional defense-in-depth measure against volumetric attacks. Monitoring tools should be configured to detect abnormal spikes in memory usage or process creation rates associated with Thrift endpoints, enabling rapid incident response if exploitation attempts are detected. Regular security audits of serialization libraries and adherence to secure coding practices for resource management remain essential components of a robust cybersecurity posture.