CVE-2026-22261 Suricata eve/alert: http1 xff handling can lead to denial of service

Low 3.7 Published 27 Jan 2026 Updated 27 Jan 2026

Attackers can cause severe slowdowns in Suricata via inefficient XFF handling in HTTP alerts, requiring XFF support to be enabled.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2026-22261?

CVE-2026-22261 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in Oisf Suricata, published on 27 Jan 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Suricata is a network IDS, IPS and NSM engine. Prior to versions 8.0.3 and 7.0.14, various inefficiencies in xff handling, especially for alerts not triggered in a tx, can lead to severe slowdowns. Versions 8.0.3 and 7.0.14 contain a patch. As a workaround, disable XFF support in the eve configuration. The setting is disabled by default.

Weakness: CWE-1050

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-22261?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Oisf Suricata.

How do I fix CVE-2026-22261?

Apply the vendor's patch.

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-2026-22261 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-22261 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Oisf Suricata vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-22261, GHSA-5jvg-5j3p-34cf, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-22261.