CVE-2026-27980 — next
Fix: vercel/next.js@39eb8e0CVE-2026-27980 is a Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in next. A fix is available for next — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Next.js: Unbounded next/image disk cache growth can exhaust storage
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-2026-27980.
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.
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
nextnpmDescription
Summary
The default Next.js image optimization disk cache (/_next/image) did not have a configurable upper bound, allowing unbounded cache growth.
Impact
An attacker could generate many unique image-optimization variants and exhaust disk space, causing denial of service. Note that this does not impact platforms that have their own image optimization capabilities, such as Vercel.
Patches
Fixed by adding an LRU-backed disk cache with images.maximumDiskCacheSize, including eviction of least-recently-used entries when the limit is exceeded. Setting maximumDiskCacheSize: 0 disables disk caching.
Workarounds
If upgrade is not immediately possible:
- Periodically clean
.next/cache/images. - Reduce variant cardinality (e.g., tighten values for
images.localPatterns,images.remotePatterns, andimages.qualities)
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | next | ≥ 16.0.0-beta.0&&< 16.1.7 | 16.1.7npm install next@16.1.7 |
| 📦npm | next | ≥ 10.0.0&&< 15.5.14 | 15.5.14npm install next@15.5.14 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for next, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update next to 16.1.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-27980 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-2026-27980 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-27980. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Streams for Apache Kafka 2.9.4 | com.github.streamshub-console | RHSA-2026:34608 |
| Streams for Apache Kafka 3.2.0 | com.github.streamshub-console | RHSA-2026:13571 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-27980 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-27980 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.