msgpack5: Quadratic parsing in the streaming decoderGHSA-gcx5-hxj7-gpqq
MEDIUMFix: mcollina/msgpack5@e482764GHSA-gcx5-hxj7-gpqq is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) CWE-407 vulnerability in msgpack5. A fix is available for msgpack5 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
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 GHSA-gcx5-hxj7-gpqq.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-gcx5-hxj7-gpqq by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
msgpack5Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects npm packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
The streaming decoder reparses an incomplete container from the beginning whenever another chunk arrives. A remote peer can split one valid MessagePack value across many small chunks, causing quadratic CPU usage and blocking the event loop.
Patches
The decoder now preserves incremental container state so completed elements are not parsed again when more input arrives.
Workarounds
Buffer each complete MessagePack value before decoding it, or limit the number of chunks accepted for a single value.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | msgpack5 | all versions | 6.1.0npm install msgpack5@6.1.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for msgpack5, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update msgpack5 to 6.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-gcx5-hxj7-gpqq 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-gcx5-hxj7-gpqq in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.