{"cve":"CVE-2026-111551","nvd":{"published":"2026-10-28T17:17:39.823","modified":"2026-10-28T20:17:19.000","status":"Received","description":"Several Kafka deserialization paths read a size or count field from input data and use it directly to allocate an array, collection, or byte buffer, with no check against the bytes actually available. A small crafted input can therefore declare a very large size and force a multi-gigabyte allocation. The affected paths are, in Kafka Streams, ProcessorRecordContext (header count), ChangedDeserializer (varint value length), CombinedKeySchema (foreign-key length, which could also produce a negative size), ProcessorMetadata (key length), and AssignmentInfo group-assignment decoding; and, in the clients library, ListDeserializer (used by ListSerde).\n\n\nImpact:\n\nAn attacker can trigger the oversized allocation and raise an OutOfMemoryError that crashes the affected consumer or Kafka Streams thread; the broker and the rest of the cluster are unaffected. The reachable surface depends on the path: writing a crafted record to a Streams application's internal changelog or repartition topics, or committing crafted offset metadata to its consumer group (Streams internal paths); writing a crafted record to any topic that a consumer reads with ListSerde (ListDeserializer); or, as a member of a Streams consumer group, returning crafted assignment data when elected leader (AssignmentInfo). Because a crafted record remains in its topic, the error can recur on restart. The record size limit (max.message.bytes) does not help, because the allocation is driven by a size field rather than by the input's length.\n\n\nMitigation:\n\nUpgrade to Apache Kafka 4.2.2, 4.3.2, or 4.4.0. Where authorization is enabled, restrict write access to each application's internal topics and consumer group to its own principal, and restrict who can produce to topics that are consumed with ListSerde.\n\n\nResolution:\n\nFrom Apache Kafka 4.2.2, 4.3.2, and 4.4.0: these deserialization paths validate the declared size against the remaining input before allocating and reject input that fails the check.","cvss_v4":null,"cvss_v3":null,"cwes":["CWE-20","CWE-400","CWE-789"],"references":["https://kafka.apache.org/cve-list","http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/10/28/13"],"products":[],"source":"nvd","synced_at":"2026-10-28T20:41:45.883959281+00:00"},"epss":null,"kev":null,"osv":[],"attribution":["This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.","EPSS scores: FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System, https://www.first.org/epss","Known exploited vulnerabilities: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","Package advisories: OSV (https://osv.dev), from the GitHub Advisory Database, PyPA, Go, RustSec and other ecosystem databases, under CC-BY 4.0 or CC0","CVE records: the CVE Program's CVE List (https://www.cve.org), under its terms of use (https://www.cve.org/Legal/TermsOfUse). CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation; this product is not affiliated with the CVE Program."]}