mediumCVSS 5.3Vulnerability

GHSA-9mqv-5hh9-4cgg

## Summary A WebSocket upgrade request to an `upgradeWebSocket` route with a missing or malformed `Sec-WebSocket-Key` header leaks memory permanently. The request's `IncomingMessage` is retained in an internal map and a pending promise is never settled, even though no connection is established. Since the route is reachable pre-handshake without authentication, an unauthenticated attacker can flood it to gradually exhaust memory. ## Details The built-in WebSocket helper cleans up its internal map only on a successful handshake or when the route guard rejects the request. When `ws` aborts the handshake because `Sec-WebSocket-Key` is missing or malformed, no `connection` event is emitted, so neither cleanup path runs and the entry is retained forever. A present-but-malformed key leaks identically, so a proxy that only checks for the header's presence does not mitigate it. ## Impact An unauthenticated attacker can flood any public `upgradeWebSocket` route with malformed-key upgrade requests, causing unbounded memory growth and eventual loss of availability. No confidentiality or integrity impact. Reported by @TarPeg007.

Properties

ghsa_id
GHSA-9mqv-5hh9-4cgg
severity
medium
summary
Node.js Adapter for Hono: Unauthenticated memory-leak DoS via aborted WebSocket handshake
cvss_score
5.3
cve_id
GHSA-9mqv-5hh9-4cgg
cvss_vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
is_ghsa_only
true
ghsa_published
2026-07-21T22:04:27Z
source_url
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-9mqv-5hh9-4cgg
ghsa_updated
2026-07-21T22:04:28Z

Related Entities (5)

VULNERABLE_TO (1)

[Software]npm/@hono/node-server

AFFECTS (1)

[Software]npm/@hono/node-server

HAS_WEAKNESS (2)

[Weakness]Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
[Weakness]Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

REPORTED_BY (1)

[Source]GitHub Advisory Database

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GHSA-9mqv-5hh9-4cgg (CVSS 5.3) — Ninja Signal Threat Intelligence | Ninja Signal