Vulnerability Description
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in absinthe-graphql absinthe allows unauthenticated denial of service via atom table exhaustion when parsing attacker-controlled GraphQL SDL. Multiple Blueprint.Draft.convert/2 implementations in Absinthe's SDL language modules call String.to_atom/1 on attacker-controlled names from parsed GraphQL SDL documents, including directive names, field names, type names, and argument names. Because atoms are never garbage-collected and the BEAM atom table has a fixed limit (default 1,048,576), each unique name permanently consumes one slot. An attacker can exhaust the atom table by submitting SDL documents containing enough unique names, causing the Erlang VM to abort with system_limit and taking down the entire node. Any application that passes attacker-controlled GraphQL SDL through Absinthe's parser is exposed — for example, a schema-upload endpoint, a federation gateway that ingests remote SDL, or any developer tool that runs the parser over user-supplied documents. This issue affects absinthe: from 1.5.0 before 1.10.2.
Related Weaknesses (CWE)
References
- https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-42793.html
- https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/commit/dd842b938e3823f345c10416914f
- https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/security/advisories/GHSA-qf4g-9fqq-
- https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-42793
FAQ
What is CVE-2026-42793?
CVE-2026-42793 is a documented vulnerability. Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in absinthe-graphql absinthe allows unauthenticated denial of service via atom table exhaustion when parsing attacker-controlled Grap...
How severe is CVE-2026-42793?
CVSS scoring is not yet available for CVE-2026-42793. Check NVD for updates.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-42793?
Check the references section above for vendor advisories and patch information. Review vendor security bulletins for remediation guidance.