RabbitMQ: JMS topic exchange erl_scan atom exhaustion

Summary

RabbitMQ is a messaging and streaming broker. Prior to versions 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6, 4.3.0, When a binding is created on an x-jms-topic exchange, add_binding/3 reads the rjms_erlang_selector argument and passes it through erl_scan:string/1 then erl_parse:parse_term/1. erl_scan:string/1 interns every atom literal it tokenizes. validate_binding/2 is a no-op (-> ok.), there is no length cap, and the surrounding try/catch cannot reclaim atoms. The Java JMS client compiles selectors client-side, but the server does not enforce this , a raw AMQP client can send arbitrary selector strings. An authenticated low-privilege AMQP user confined to one vhost can crash the entire broker node (cross-tenant DoS) in <100 bind calls. Preconditions include rabbitmq_jms_topic_exchange plugin enabled (bundled; required for any JMS deployment) Authenticated AMQP user with read on an x-jms-topic exchange + write on a queue (or configure to declare both). This issue is fixed in versions 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6, 4.3.0.

Timeline

1. Sep 23, 2026, 8:06 PM UTCCVE published
2. Sep 24, 2026, 2:15 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Sep 24, 2026, 2:16 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• rabbitmq rabbitmq-server

  From 3.13.0 · fixed in 3.13.15; From 4.0.0 · fixed in 4.0.20; From 4.1.0 · fixed in 4.1.11; From 4.2.0 · fixed in 4.2.6

• rabbitmqBitnami

  From 3.13.0 · fixed in 3.13.15; From 4.0.0 · fixed in 4.0.20; From 4.1.0 · fixed in 4.1.11; From 4.2.0 · fixed in 4.2.6

References 2