CVE-2026-77410: RabbitMQ amqp091-go: Resource Exhaustion (OOM) via Unbounded Body Buffer Allocation
Summary A flaw in the recvContent function allows a malicious AMQP server to trigger an Out-of-Memory (OOM) error, forcing the host operating system or container runtime to immediately terminate the client process.
Vulnerability Details When receiving message content payloads, the client processes the expected size from the content header framework. The recvContent function attempts to optimize performance by pre-allocating memory for the message body based on the ch.header.Size field, which is a 64-bit unsigned integer (uint64).
go // channel.go:495-496 if cap(ch.body) == 0 { ch.body = make([]byte, 0, ch.header.Size) // unbounded }
The underlying library fails to validate or cap this requested size against any upper boundary—such as the maximum frame size negotiated during connection establishment (FrameMax). If a server specifies an extreme body size (e.g., 2^62 bytes), the Go runtime attempts to allocate an exabyte-scale slice capacity. This immediately exhausts available system memory, causing the operating system's OOM killer to terminate the application.
Attack Vector / Exploitation Scenario
- Message Delivery Phase: A malicious or compromised AMQP broker sends a standard basic.deliver frame containing a content header with an intentionally inflated body-size variable. - Authentication Requirement: No special privileges or authentication bypasses are required; the crash occurs seamlessly during normal message consumption.
Impact
- Availability: High. Exploded memory consumption results in an instant process termination, destroying application state and availability for all threads sharing the environment.
Other sources
RabbitMQ amqp091-go is a Go AMQP 0.9.1 client. Prior to 1.13.0, Channel.recvContent in channel.go preallocates the message body slice with the uint64 ch.header.Size value supplied by an AMQP content header without capping the allocation to the negotiated Connection.Config.FrameSize value. A malicious or compromised broker can send an extreme declared body size and cause the Go runtime to attempt a correspondingly large allocation before body data is received. The allocation can exhaust memory and terminate the client process. This issue is fixed in version 1.13.0.
— MITRE
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade
go/github.com/rabbitmq/amqp091-goto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 1.13.0 - Upgrade
Upgrade
amqp091-goto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 1.13.0
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which deployments are exposed to this issue?
Applications using RabbitMQ amqp091-go versions before 1.13.0 are exposed when they receive AMQP content from a malicious or compromised broker.
What does an attacker need to do to trigger the condition?
The attacker needs to control, or be able to make a broker send, an AMQP content header with an extreme declared body size. The client may attempt to allocate memory for that declared size before receiving the body data.
Does exploitation require sending a large message body?
No. The allocation is based on the uint64 body-size value declared in the content header, before body data is received.
What is the remediation?
Upgrade RabbitMQ amqp091-go to version 1.13.0, which fixes the unbounded body-buffer allocation.