# CVE-2019-11938: Denial of service in Facebook Thrift

> Malicious clients can cause excessive memory allocation in Java Facebook Thrift servers, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 10 Mar 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-hr4p-8hm2-w85x

## What is CVE-2019-11938?

CVE-2019-11938 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Facebook Thrift, published on 10 Mar 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Java Facebook Thrift servers would not error upon receiving messages declaring containers of sizes larger than the payload. As a result, malicious clients could send short messages which would result in a large memory allocation, potentially leading to denial of service. This issue affects Facebook Thrift prior to v2019.12.09.00.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-11938?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Facebook Thrift.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-11938?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2019-11938 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-11938 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Facebook Thrift

- [CVE-2021-24028](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24028/): Use after free in Facebook Thrift (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-11939](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11939/): Golang Facebook Thrift servers vulnerable to denial of service (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2019-3553](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-3553/): Denial of service in Facebook Thrift (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2019-3552](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-3552/): Denial of service in Facebook Thrift (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2019-3558](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-3558/): Denial of service in Facebook Thrift (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-11938 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-11938 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Facebook Thrift, published on 10 Mar 2020. 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-2019-11938 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Facebook Thrift. 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-2019-11938/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11938/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-11938
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-11938
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-11938

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11938/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.