# CVE-2013-7291: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash memcached by sending specific requests when verbose logging is enabled, causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Low 1.8 (`AV:A/AC:H/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 13 Jan 2014
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2013-7291, GHSA-837m-gcpw-m94w

## What is CVE-2013-7291?

CVE-2013-7291 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 13 Jan 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

memcached before 1.4.17, when running in verbose mode, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a request that triggers an "unbounded key print" during logging, related to an issue that was "quickly grepped out of the source tree," a different vulnerability than CVE-2013-0179 and CVE-2013-7290.

Weakness: CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2013-7291?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Memcached Memcached.

## How do I fix CVE-2013-7291?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2013-7291 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2013-7291 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2023-46853](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-46853/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-8704](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8704/): Integer overflow in Memcached (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-8705](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8705/): Integer overflow in Memcached (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-47783](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-47783/): Information disclosure in memcached (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2026-47784](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-47784/): Information disclosure in memcached (high 8.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2013-7291 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2013-7291 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 13 Jan 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2013-7291 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-7291/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-7291/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2013-7291
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2013-7291
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2013-7291

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-7291/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.