CVE-2026-35441 Directus Affected by GraphQL Alias Amplification Denial-of-Service Due to Missing Query Cost/Complexity Limits
Authenticated users can cause denial of service in Directus by exploiting GraphQL aliasing to exhaust server resources due to missing query cost limits.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-35441?
CVE-2026-35441 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Monospace Directus, published on 6 Apr 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Directus is a real-time API and App dashboard for managing SQL database content. Prior to 11.17.0, Directus' GraphQL endpoints (/graphql and /graphql/system) did not deduplicate resolver invocations within a single request. An authenticated user could exploit GraphQL aliasing to repeat an expensive relational query many times in a single request, forcing the server to execute a large number of independent complex database queries concurrently, multiplying database load linearly with the number of aliases. The existing token limit on GraphQL queries still permitted enough aliases for significant resource exhaustion, while the relational depth limit applied per alias without reducing the total number executed. Rate limiting is disabled by default, meaning no built-in throttle prevented this from causing CPU, memory, and I/O exhaustion that could degrade or crash the service. Any authenticated user, including those with minimal read-only permissions, could trigger this condition. This vulnerability is fixed in 11.17.0.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-35441?
2 open source packages ship an affected version, including directus. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
directus npm | All versions | 11.17.0 |
directus npm | All versions | 11.17.0 |
Products include Monospace Directus.
How do I fix CVE-2026-35441?
Upgrade directus to 11.17.0 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-2026-35441 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-35441 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Monospace Directus
- CVE-2022-26969 Insecure default value for CORS configuration
- CVE-2025-55746 Directus allows unauthenticated file upload and file modification due to lacking input sanitization
- CVE-2026-35408 Directus is Missing Cross-Origin Opener Policy
- CVE-2026-61836 Directus: Authorization-dependent response served from unsegmented cache key
- CVE-2025-30353 Directus's webhook trigger flows can leak sensitive data
Sources
Also known as GHSA-ph52-67fq-75wj.