CVE-2026-52732
### Am I affected You are affected if: 1. You run `zebrad` up to and including `v4.4.1`. 2. Your node accepts inbound P2P connections (`network.listen_addr` is set, which is the default). 3. Your node's mempool is active (node is synced near the chain tip). All default configurations are affected. ### Summary A single unauthenticated P2P peer can monopolize all 25 inbound mempool download/verification slots (`MAX_INBOUND_CONCURRENCY`) by advertising fake transaction IDs. While the slots are occupied, all other inbound transactions from honest peers and local RPC `sendrawtransaction` calls are rejected with `MempoolError::FullQueue`. The attacker peer is never scored for misbehavior and is not disconnected, allowing sustained denial of mempool admission. ### Details The mempool download/verification pipeline at `zebrad/src/components/mempool/downloads.rs` uses a single bounded pool of 25 concurrent tasks. Three architectural gaps combine to produce the vulnerability: 1. No per-peer accounting: the 25 slots are shared across all peers with no cap on how many a single peer can hold. 2. No overload signaling: when `FullQueue` is returned, the inbound service at `zebrad/src/components/inbound.rs` maps it to `Response::Nil`, hiding the overload from the peer connection layer. The existing `handle_inbound_overload` disconnection logic never fires. 3. No misbehavior attribution: peer identity is not carried through the `Gossip` type into the download pipeline, so verification failures cannot be attributed to the originating peer. The attacker sends `inv` messages advertising fake transaction IDs. Zebra queues download tasks for each ID. The attacker stays silent; each slot is held until the `TRANSACTION_DOWNLOAD_TIMEOUT` (20 seconds) fires. The attacker periodically sends fresh `inv` waves to re-fill slots as they expire. Two additional slot-holding techniques have been independently demonstrated: invalid-prevout transactions that park in `AwaitOutput` for 60 seco
Properties
- ghsa_id
- GHSA-4fc2-h7jh-287c
- severity
- medium
- summary
- zebrad has mempool transaction admission denial via single-peer inbound queue saturation
- cvss_score
- 5.3
- cve_id
- CVE-2026-52732
- cvss_vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- is_ghsa_only
- false
- ghsa_published
- 2026-07-02T19:39:02Z
- source_url
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-4fc2-h7jh-287c
- ghsa_updated
- 2026-07-02T19:39:02Z
Related Entities (4)
VULNERABLE_TO (1)
AFFECTS (1)
HAS_WEAKNESS (1)
REPORTED_BY (1)
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