CVE-2026-27980: Next.js: Unbounded next/image disk cache growth can exhaust storage

Summary The default Next.js image optimization disk cache (/next/image) did not have a configurable upper bound, allowing unbounded cache growth.

Impact An attacker could generate many unique image-optimization variants and exhaust disk space, causing denial of service. Note that this does not impact platforms that have their own image optimization capabilities, such as Vercel.

Patches Fixed by adding an LRU-backed disk cache with images.maximumDiskCacheSize, including eviction of least-recently-used entries when the limit is exceeded. Setting maximumDiskCacheSize: 0 disables disk caching.

Workarounds If upgrade is not immediately possible: - Periodically clean .next/cache/images. - Reduce variant cardinality (e.g., tighten values for images.localPatterns, images.remotePatterns, and images.qualities)

— GitHub

Next.js is a React framework for building full-stack web applications. Starting in version 10.0.0 and prior to version 16.1.7, the default Next.js image optimization disk cache (/next/image) did not have a configurable upper bound, allowing unbounded cache growth. An attacker could generate many unique image-optimization variants and exhaust disk space, causing denial of service. This is fixed in version 16.1.7 by adding an LRU-backed disk cache with images.maximumDiskCacheSize, including eviction of least-recently-used entries when the limit is exceeded. Setting maximumDiskCacheSize: 0 disables disk caching. If upgrading is not immediately possible, periodically clean .next/cache/images and/or reduce variant cardinality (e.g., tighten values for images.localPatterns, images.remotePatterns, and images.qualities).

— NVD