Suricata is a network Intrusion Detection System, Intrusion Prevention System and Network Security Monitoring engine. Prior to 7.0.5 and 6.0.19, a small amount of HTTP/2 traffic can lead to Suricata using a large amount of memory. The issue has been addressed in Suricata 7.0.5 and 6.0.19. Workarounds include disabling the HTTP/2 parser and reducing app-layer.protocols.http2.max-table-size value (default is 65536).
Weakness
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suricata | Oisf | 6.0.0 (including) | 6.0.19 (excluding) |
| Suricata | Oisf | 7.0.0 (including) | 7.0.5 (excluding) |
| Suricata | Ubuntu | mantic | * |
| Suricata | Ubuntu | oracular | * |
| Suricata | Ubuntu | plucky | * |
Potential Mitigations
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.
Related Attack Patterns
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/147.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/227.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/492.html
References
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/commit/08d93f7c3762781b743f88f9fdc4389eb9c3eb64
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/commit/c0af92295e833d1db29b184d63cd3b829451d7fd
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/commit/d24b37a103c04bb2667e449e080ba4c8e56bb019
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/commit/e68ec4b227d19498f364a41eb25d3182f0383ca5
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/security/advisories/GHSA-9jxm-qw9v-266r
- https://redmine.openinfosecfoundation.org/issues/6892
- https://redmine.openinfosecfoundation.org/issues/6900
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/commit/08d93f7c3762781b743f88f9fdc4389eb9c3eb64
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/commit/c0af92295e833d1db29b184d63cd3b829451d7fd
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/commit/d24b37a103c04bb2667e449e080ba4c8e56bb019
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/commit/e68ec4b227d19498f364a41eb25d3182f0383ca5
- https://github.com/OISF/suricata/security/advisories/GHSA-9jxm-qw9v-266r
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00029.html
- https://redmine.openinfosecfoundation.org/issues/6892
- https://redmine.openinfosecfoundation.org/issues/6900