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

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

- **Severity:** Low 3.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 27 Jan 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-22261, GHSA-5jvg-5j3p-34cf, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-22261

## 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 (Excessive Platform Resource Consumption within a Loop)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-22261?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Oisf Suricata.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-22261?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-22261 being exploited?

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

## Other vulnerabilities in Oisf Suricata

- [CVE-2023-35853](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-35853/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-37592](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-37592/): Other in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-10244](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10244/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-94083](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-94083/): Memory corruption in Suricata (critical 9.4)
- [CVE-2026-94084](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-94084/): Use after free in Suricata (critical 9.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-22261 and fix it if it is affected.

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

Affected product: Oisf Suricata. 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-2026-22261/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-22261/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-22261
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-22261
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-22261

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-22261/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.