CVE-2026-42793 Details
Description
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in absinthe-graphql absinthe allows unauthenticated denial of service via atom table exhaustion when parsing attacker-controlled GraphQL SDL. Multiple Blueprint.Draft.convert/2 implementations in Absinthe's SDL language modules call String.to_atom/1 on attacker-controlled names from parsed GraphQL SDL documents, including directive names, field names, type names, and argument names. Because atoms are never garbage-collected and the BEAM atom table has a fixed limit (default 1,048,576), each unique name permanently consumes one slot. An attacker can exhaust the atom table by submitting SDL documents containing enough unique names, causing the Erlang VM to abort with system_limit and taking down the entire node. Any application that passes attacker-controlled GraphQL SDL through Absinthe's parser is exposed — for example, a schema-upload endpoint, a federation gateway that ingests remote SDL, or any developer tool that runs the parser over user-supplied documents. This issue affects absinthe: from 1.5.0 before 1.10.2.
A denial-of-service vulnerability has been identified in the Absinthe-GraphQL library, specifically in versions 1.5.0 prior to 1.10.2. This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to exhaust the BEAM VM's atom table by submitting GraphQL Schema Definition Language (SDL) documents that contain a high number of unique names. The issue arises because Absinthe's SDL parsing modules convert these names into atoms without any validation or limits. Since atoms are not garbage-collected and the atom table has a fixed capacity, this can lead to a crash of the entire Erlang node, disrupting all workloads on the VM.
Users can upgrade to Absinthe version 1.10.2 or later to address this vulnerability.
Metrics
CVSS 4.0 Severity and Vector Strings:
CVSS 3.x Severity and Vector Strings:
No data available for CVSS Version 2.0 on this CVE.
CISA-ADP
Assessed May 8, 2026References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
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| URL | Source(s) | Tag(s) |
|---|---|---|
| https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-42793.html | EEF | Third Party Advisory |
| https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/commit/dd842b938e3823f345c10416914ffab5d5536838 | EEF | Patch |
| https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/security/advisories/GHSA-qf4g-9fqq-mmm7 | EEF | ExploitVendor Advisory |
| https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-42793 | EEF | Third Party Advisory |
Weakness Enumeration
| CWE-ID | CWE Name | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CWE-770 | Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling | EEF |
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
| absinthe-graphql absinthe | > 1.5.0, < 1.10.2 |
CPE
Remediation
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Change History
5 change records found show changes
| Date | Action | Recorded By |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 17, 2026 | CVE Modified | EEF |
| Jun 17, 2026 | CVE Modified | CISA-ADP |
| May 22, 2026 | Initial Analysis | [email protected] |
| May 9, 2026 | CVE Modified | EEF |
| May 8, 2026 | New CVE Received | EEF |