CVE-2023-1428 Denial-of-Service in gRPC
Attackers can cause a denial of service in gRPC C++ implementations by sending specific malformed HTTP/2 headers that trigger an abort.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-1428?
CVE-2023-1428 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Google gRPC, published on 9 Jun 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
There exists an vulnerability causing an abort() to be called in gRPC. The following headers cause gRPC's C++ implementation to abort() when called via http2:
te: x (x != trailers)
:scheme: x (x != http, https)
grpclb_client_stats: x (x == anything)
On top of sending one of those headers, a later header must be sent that gets the total header size past 8KB. We recommend upgrading past git commit 2485fa94bd8a723e5c977d55a3ce10b301b437f8 or v1.53 and above.
Weakness: CWE-617
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-1428?
7 open source packages ship an affected version, including grpcio, io.grpc:grpc-protobuf and grpc. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
grpcio PyPI | From 1.51.0 | 1.53.0 |
grpcio PyPI | From 1.51.0 | 1.53.0 |
grpcio PyPI | From 1.51.0 | 1.53.0 |
io.grpc:grpc-protobuf Maven | From 1.51.0 | 1.53.0 |
io.grpc:grpc-protobuf Maven | From 1.51.0 | 1.53.0 |
grpc RubyGems | From 1.51.0 | 1.53.0 |
1 more packages
grpc RubyGems | From 1.51.0 | 1.53.0 |
Products include Grpc Grpc.
How do I fix CVE-2023-1428?
Upgrade grpcio to 1.53.0 or later.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2023-1428 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-1428 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Google gRPC
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-1428, CLEANSTART-2026-ER15983, GHSA-6628-q6j9-w8vg, PYSEC-2026-1425, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-1428.