{"id":"CVE-2023-40591","aliases":["GHSA-ppjg-v974-84cm","GO-2023-2046"],"url":"https://o3.security/vulnerability/CVE-2023-40591","summary":"Denial of service via malicious p2p message in go-ethereum","details":"### Impact\n\nA vulnerable node, can be made to consume unbounded amounts of memory when handling specially crafted p2p messages sent from an attacker node.\n\n### Details\n\nThe p2p handler spawned a new goroutine to respond to `ping` requests. By flooding a node with ping requests, an unbounded number of goroutines can be created, leading to resource exhaustion and potentially crash due to OOM.\n\n### Patches\n\nThe fix is included in geth version `1.12.1-stable`, i.e, `1.12.2-unstable` and onwards. \n\nFixed by https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/pull/27887\n\n### Workarounds\n\nNo known workarounds. \n\n### Credits\n\nThis bug was reported by Patrick McHardy and reported via [bounty@ethereum.org](mailto:bounty@ethereum.org). \n\n### References\n\n","published":"2023-09-06T18:07:20.899Z","modified":"2026-10-28T02:31:05.644433284Z","cvss":{"score":7.5,"severity":"HIGH","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"},"epss":{"score":0.01121,"percentile":0.64597,"asOf":"2026-09-17"},"cisaKev":null,"exploitsKnown":0,"affectedPackages":[{"ecosystem":"Go","name":"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum","fixedVersion":"1.12.1-stable"}],"fix":null,"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/developers/geth-developer/disclosures"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/releases/tag/v1.12.1"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/40xxx/CVE-2023-40591.json"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/security/advisories/GHSA-ppjg-v974-84cm"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-40591"},{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum"}],"provenance":{"sources":["OSV.dev","FIRST.org (EPSS)"],"lastVerified":"2026-10-28T02:31:05.644433284Z"}}