GHSA-qvqg-6rp8-4p9h
MEDIUMgithub.com/ipfs/kubo affected by DOS Bitswap unbounded persistent memory leak
Blast Radius
github.com/ipfs/kuboReal-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
Impact
An attacker is able allocate arbitrarily many bytes in the Bitswap server by sending many WANT_BLOCK and or WANT_HAVE requests which are queued in an unbounded queue, with allocations that persist even if the connection is closed.
This affects users accepting or connecting untrusted connections such as by running in the public swarm and no pnet config. Nodes that are not publicly reachable but connects to untrusted nodes are also vulnerable to the untrusted nodes being connected to since libp2p connections are blindly bidirectional.
Patches
- 19feb15833c6f4d6e7f1e1b132efaae96d76481d
boxoupdate in Kubo - GHSA-m974-xj4j-7qv5 patches in boxo
Workarounds
Use PNET, swarm filters or resource manager allows list to block untrusted connections.
Note that using the resource manager will disrupt both client and server features because the bitswap protocol is a message based protocol mixing requests and responses.
References
- GHSA-m974-xj4j-7qv5
- CVE-2023-25568
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/ipfs/kubo | all versions | 0.19.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/ipfs/kubo. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/ipfs/kubo to 0.19.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-qvqg-6rp8-4p9h 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-qvqg-6rp8-4p9h is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-qvqg-6rp8-4p9h. 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-qvqg-6rp8-4p9h in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-qvqg-6rp8-4p9h across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.