GHSA-rp9v-7xv3-r6g3: Medium severity go/github.com/corazawaf/coraza/v3 vulnerability
Summary
defer temp.Close() sits inside a for loop in the multipart processor. Go defers run at function return, not loop end, so every file part in the request holds an open fd until ProcessRequest() exits. Send enough parts and you hit EMFILE. With CRS loaded, that flips MULTIPARTSTRICTERROR to 1 and rule 200001 starts returning 400s, including on legitimate requests hitting the same condition.
Details
internal/bodyprocessors/multipart.go, line 69:
go for { p, err := mr.NextPart() // ... temp, err := os.CreateTemp(storagePath, "crzmp") defer temp.Close() // wrong scope io.Copy(temp, p) }
Each iteration opens a temp file and defers its close. All of them stack up and fire together when ProcessRequest returns. 500 parts, 500 fds held simultaneously.
The body size limit (default 128MB) caps total bytes, not part count. A minimal file part (boundary line, Content-Disposition with filename=, one byte of content) is about 104 bytes. That's roughly 65,000 parts per 6.8MB of body, which on a standard Linux system (hard fd limit 65536) is enough to exhaust the table.
Fix is straightforward: call temp.Close() explicitly after io.Copy instead of deferring it.
PoC
Tested on v3.7.0 (db9850b), Go 1.25, Linux x8664.
Add this file at internal/bodyprocessors/pocfdtest.go and run:
text go test -v -run TestMultipartFDLeak ./internal/bodyprocessors/...
go package bodyprocessorstest
import ( "fmt" "os" "strings" "sync" "sync/atomic" "testing"
"github.com/corazawaf/coraza/v3/experimental/plugins/plugintypes" "github.com/corazawaf/coraza/v3/internal/bodyprocessors" "github.com/corazawaf/coraza/v3/internal/corazawaf" )
func countFDs() int { e, := os.ReadDir("/proc/self/fd") return len(e) }
func TestMultipartFDLeak(t testing.T) { boundary := "testboundary" var sb strings.Builder for i := 0; i < 500; i++ { fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "--%s\r\n", boundary) fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"f%d\"; filename=\"f%d.txt\"\r\n", i, i) sb.WriteString("\r\n") sb.WriteString("X\r\n") } fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "--%s--\r\n", boundary)
mp, := bodyprocessors.GetBodyProcessor("multipart") baseline := countFDs()
var peak int64 done := make(chan struct{}) var wg sync.WaitGroup wg.Add(1) go func() { defer wg.Done() for { select { case <-done: return default: n := int64(countFDs()) for { cur := atomic.LoadInt64(&peak) if n <= cur || atomic.CompareAndSwapInt64(&peak, cur, n) { break } } } } }()
v := corazawaf.NewTransactionVariables() mp.ProcessRequest(strings.NewReader(sb.String()), v, plugintypes.BodyProcessorOptions{ Mime: "multipart/form-data; boundary=" + boundary, StoragePath: t.TempDir(), }) close(done) wg.Wait()
t.Logf("baseline=%d peak=%d spike=+%d", baseline, atomic.LoadInt64(&peak), atomic.LoadInt64(&peak)-int64(baseline)) }
Output:
text baseline=7 peak=506 spike=+499
The spike is ~1 fd per part. After ProcessRequest returns the deferred closes fire and it drops back to baseline.
Impact
- No authentication required. Any endpoint that accepts multipart uploads is affected. - fd exhaustion at ~6.8MB body (~65k parts). os.CreateTemp starts returning errors and MULTIPARTSTRICTERROR is set to 1. - CRS false positives / DoS. With CRS loaded, rule 200001 then blocks the request with a 400 — and any other multipart request processed concurrently that runs into the same condition gets blocked too. At that point the WAF can't distinguish the attack from a legitimate upload. - Process-wide impact. While the fd table is full the process can't open sockets or files for anything else either. - Scope. Affects all v3.x releases; the defer has been present since the multipart processor was introduced.
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade
go/github.com/corazawaf/coraza/v3to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 3.8.0 - Compensating control
In internal/bodyprocessors/multipart.go, replace defer temp.Close() inside the multipart-processing loop with an explicit temp.Close() call immediately after io.Copy(temp, p), so each temporary file is closed at the end of its part iteration.
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can trigger the file-descriptor exhaustion condition?
An unauthenticated remote client can trigger it by sending a multipart request with enough file parts. The request does not need to be large because the default 128 MB body limit restricts bytes, not the number of parts.
What operational impact should be expected when the limit is reached?
The multipart processor can hit EMFILE while processing a request. When CRS is loaded, this sets MULTIPART_STRICT_ERROR to 1, causing rule 200001 to return HTTP 400 responses, including for legitimate requests that encounter the same condition.
How can exposure be reduced before updating?
Restrict or rate-limit multipart requests and limit the number of multipart file parts accepted upstream where possible. Reducing the process file-descriptor limit does not mitigate the issue; it may make exhaustion occur sooner.
What change addresses the issue?
The affected code should close each temporary file explicitly after io.Copy completes, rather than deferring temp.Close() inside the loop. A referenced release is v3.8.0.