CVE-2026-48109 — MessagePack
HIGHCVE-2026-48109 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in MessagePack. A fix is available for MessagePack — see the affected versions and patch details below.
MessagePack-CSharp: LZ4 decompression may fail with AccessViolationException after dereferencing memory from bad input
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-2026-48109.
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-2026-48109 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
MessagePack.NETMessagePackReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects NuGet packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
A vulnerability exists in the optional LZ4 decompression path used by MessagePack compression modes Lz4Block and Lz4BlockArray.
The decoder implementation is based on a deprecated fast-decompression algorithm that does not take a source-length bound. A remote attacker can send a crafted MessagePack payload with manipulated LZ4 token/length fields to force out-of-bounds reads from the compressed input buffer. In affected environments, this can trigger an AccessViolationException during decompression, causing process termination (denial of service). Under some conditions, limited unintended memory disclosure from over-read data may also be possible before failure.
This issue affects applications that deserialize untrusted data while LZ4 compression is enabled.
Patches
The v2 versions are patched as of 2.5.301. The v3 versions are patched as of 3.1.7.
Workarounds
Instead of upgrading, an application may take the following precautions:
- Disable LZ4 compression for untrusted input paths (
Lz4Block,Lz4BlockArray). - Only accept compressed payloads from strongly trusted producers.
- Isolate deserialization in a separate process/container with restart supervision to limit availability impact.
Resources
- MESSAGEPACKCSHARP-010
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| .NETNuGet | MessagePack | all versions | 2.5.301dotnet add package MessagePack --version 2.5.301 |
| .NETNuGet | MessagePack | ≥ 3.0.214-rc.1&&< 3.1.7 | 3.1.7dotnet add package MessagePack --version 3.1.7 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for MessagePack, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update MessagePack to 2.5.301 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-48109 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-2026-48109 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-48109. 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-2026-48109 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-48109 across NuGet dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.