GHSA-r9c8-gcjp-xfwh: Go/github.com/rabbitmq/amqp091-go vulnerability
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.
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
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which deployments are exposed to this denial-of-service condition?
Clients using this library are exposed when they receive content from a malicious or compromised AMQP server. The server can send a content header declaring an extreme body size during message delivery.
Does an attacker need to send a large message body to trigger the failure?
No. The client pre-allocates the message body based on the size declared in the content header, so an extreme declared size can cause the allocation attempt before the corresponding payload is received.
Does the negotiated AMQP maximum frame size limit prevent this allocation?
No. The affected code does not validate or cap the declared content size against the negotiated FrameMax value.