GHSA-mp6q-xf9x-fwf7 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-1333 vulnerability in apollo-server. A fix is available for apollo-server — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apollo Serve vulnerable to Denial of Service with `startStandaloneServer`
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 GHSA-mp6q-xf9x-fwf7.
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
GHSA-mp6q-xf9x-fwf7 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 377,333 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
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, a proxy for how much of the ecosystem is exposed.
apollo-servernpm@apollo/servernpmDescription
Impact
The default configuration of startStandaloneServer from @apollo/server/standalone is vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks through specially crafted request bodies with exotic character set encodings.
This issue does not affect users that use @apollo/server as a dependency for integration packages, like @as integrations/express5 or @as-integrations/next, only direct usage of startStandaloneServer.
Who is impacted
Users directly using startStandaloneServer from @apollo/server/standalone.
This issue affects Apollo Server from v5.0.0 through v5.3.x.
It also affects all releases of the end-of-life major versions v4, v3, and v2. Although Apollo Server v4 is EOL and Apollo no longer commits to providing support or updates for it, a fix for it was released in v4.13.0. Apollo Server v3 and v2 are no longer updated, as they have been EOL since 2024 and 2023 respectively.
Patches
Patches for this issue are released as @apollo/server versions 5.4.0 and 4.13.0.
In accordance with RFC 7159, these versions now only accept request bodies encoded in UTF-8, UTF-16 (LE or BE), or UTF-32 (LE or BE). Any other character set will be rejected with a 415 Unsupported Media Type error. Note that the more recent JSON RFC, [RFC 8259 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8259#section-8.1), is more strict and will only allow UTF-8. Since this is a minor release, we have chosen to remain compatible with the more permissive RFC 7159 for now. In a future major release, the restriction may be tightened further to only allow UTF-8.
Workarounds
Users of apollo-server v2 or v3 that cannot upgrade for some reason could switch from the standalone apollo-server
package to an integration package like apollo-server-express or apollo-server-koa and set up their own server. Please note that these old packages are generally EOL and do not receive any more support or bug fixes. This can only be seen as a short-term workaround. Updating to @apollo/server v5 should be a priority.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | apollo-server | ≥ 2.0.0 | No fix |
| 📦npm | @apollo/server | ≥ 4.2.0&&< 4.13.0 | 4.13.0npm install @apollo/server@4.13.0 |
| 📦npm | @apollo/server | ≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.4.0 | 5.4.0npm install @apollo/server@5.4.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for apollo-server, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
No patched version of apollo-server has shipped for GHSA-mp6q-xf9x-fwf7 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
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 GHSA-mp6q-xf9x-fwf7 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-mp6q-xf9x-fwf7. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-mp6q-xf9x-fwf7 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-mp6q-xf9x-fwf7 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.