RabbitMQ: Web-MQTT decompression bomb

Answer in brief

CVE-2026-67232 records a High severity (CVSS 8.2) vulnerability in RabbitMQ: Web-MQTT decompression bomb. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Analysis pending evidence review

HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.

Published Sep 23, 2026Updated Sep 23, 2026Source checked Sep 24, 2026First seen by HOL Sep 23, 2026Material review Sep 23, 2026

Upstream Advisory

Key facts

Risk: High · CVSS 8.2
Exploitation: Not marked as known exploited
Affected software: 1 mapped package or product
Fix availability: Available

Why this deserves its current priority

CVSS is 8.2. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.

Analysis status

Analysis pending evidence review

Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.

Affected scope and exposure questions

The current feed maps rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Mapped affected packages and fixed versions
Package	Affected range	Fixed version
rabbitmq/rabbitmq-servergeneric	>=3.13.0 <3.13.15 \|\| >=4.0.0 <4.0.20 \|\| >=4.1.0 <4.1.11 \|\| >=4.2.0 <4.2.6	3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6

Recommended response

Check inventory. Check lockfiles and deployed manifests for rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server.
Review the reported fix. Update rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server to 3.13.15 if you use the affected versions. Test the change in a non-production environment first.

Evidence timeline and material changes

Published upstream
Sep 23, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
Source modified
Sep 23, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
First seen by HOL
Sep 23, 2026

Sources and claim methodology

Upstream source description

RabbitMQ is a messaging and streaming broker. Prior to versions 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6, and 4.3.0, The cowboy WebSocket options at line 117 set compress => true, enabling RFC 7692 permessage-deflate negotiation. The handler does not set max_frame_size, so cowboy's default of infinity applies. cowlib's cow_ws:parse_payload/9 calls zlib:inflate/2 on the compressed payload with no output-size limit. An attacker can negotiate permessage-deflate during the WebSocket upgrade and send a frame containing a zlib bomb (e.g. 50 KB → 5 GB). Decompression occurs in the connection process before websocket_handle/2 ever sees the MQTT bytes. An unauthenticated attacker can crash a RabbitMQ node running the Web-MQTT plugin by sending a single highly-compressed WebSocket frame (a few KB on the wire) that inflates to gigabytes in memory. The cowboy WebSocket handler decompresses the entire frame before the MQTT CONNECT packet is processed, so no credentials are required. Preconditions include rabbitmq_web_mqtt plugin enabled (not default, but common for browser clients) Network reachability to port 15675/15676 No authentication required. This issue is fixed in versions 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6, and 4.3.0.

Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.