CVE-2024-35194 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in github.com/stacklok/minder. A fix is available for github.com/stacklok/minder — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Stacklok Minder vulnerable to denial of service from maliciously crafted templates
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-35194.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-35194 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/stacklok/minderReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Minder engine is susceptible to a denial of service from memory exhaustion that can be triggered from maliciously created templates.
Minder engine uses templating to generate strings for various use cases such as URLs, messages for pull requests, descriptions for advisories. In some cases can the user control both the template and the params for it, and in a subset of these cases, Minder reads the generated template entirely into memory. When Minders templating meets both of these conditions, an attacker is able to generate large enough templates that Minder will exhaust memory and crash.
One of these places is the REST ingester:
With control over both endpoint and retp on the following line:
… an attacker can make Minder generate a large template that Minder reads into memory on the following line by invoking endpoint.String():
Consider this example:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"html/template"
"os"
)
type EndpointTemplateParams struct {
// Params are the parameters to be used in the template
Params map[string]any
}
func main() {
retp := &EndpointTemplateParams{
Params: map[string]any{
"params": make([]string, 10),
},
}
fmt.Println(retp)
const templ = `
{{range $idx, $e := .Params.params}}
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-{{$idx}}
{{end}}
{{range $idx, $e := .Params.params}}
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-{{$idx}}
{{end}}
{{range $idx, $e := .Params.params}}
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-{{$idx}}
{{end}}`
tmpl := template.Must(template.New("").Parse(templ))
if err := tmpl.Execute(os.Stdout, retp); err != nil {
panic(err)
}
}
This example imitates the behavior on these lines:
Running this example generates the following template:
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-0
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-1
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-2
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-3
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-4
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-5
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-6
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-7
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-8
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-9
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-0
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-1
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-2
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-3
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-4
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-5
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-6
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-7
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-8
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-9
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-0
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-1
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-2
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-3
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-4
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-5
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-6
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-7
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-8
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong-string-9
A malicious user can call the loop more times, increase the loop count and/or make the repeated long string longer to make the size of the template bigger.
A sufficiently large template will consume a lot of memory on this line which will exhaust memory on the machine and crash the Minder server:
Minder should enforce a limit to generated templates before reading them into memory.
The following templates are believed to be vulnerable:
Minder has a few other templates especially in its engine which needs reviewing too. As a default, all templates should be limited in size before Minder reads them into memory.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/stacklok/minder | all versions | 0.0.50go get github.com/stacklok/minder@v0.0.50 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/stacklok/minder, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/stacklok/minder to 0.0.50 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-35194 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-35194 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-35194. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-35194 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-35194 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.