Description
kafka-python prior to 2.3.2 contains a denial-of-service vulnerability in the protocol parser that allows a malicious broker or machine-in-the-middle attacker to exhaust memory or hang connections by sending a crafted 4-byte frame length value without bounds validation. Attackers can send a specially crafted frame length through the receive_bytes() function to trigger either a multi-gigabyte memory allocation or an uncaught ValueError that leaves the connection in a broken state, causing requests to hang and consumers to stop heartbeating until restart.
Metrics
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HWeakness enumeration
Affected software
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Dana Powers | kafka-python | < 2.3.2 |
References
- https://github.com/dpkp/kafka-python/commit/6e4831444f972d169cdd11f5c8d50333cea3f19bPatch
- https://github.com/dpkp/kafka-python/pull/3019Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://github.com/dpkp/kafka-python/pull/3026Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/kafka-python-prior-to-denial-of-service-via-protocol-parser-frame-lengthPatch, Third Party Advisory
Timeline
- Published
- Jun 10, 2026
- Last modified
- Oct 8, 2026
- NVD status
- Analyzed