CVE-2026-46603 Excessive memory allocation during VP8L decoding in golang.org/x/image
A remote attacker can cause denial of service via memory exhaustion by sending a crafted VP8L image to applications using the Go image library.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-46603?
CVE-2026-46603 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in golang.org/x/image/vp8l, published on 14 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
VP8L decoding in golang.org/x/image/vp8l can allocate an excessive amount of memory when processing a crafted VP8L image containing many unused Huffman tree groups. This allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service via memory exhaustion.
Weakness: CWE-789
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-46603?
1 open source package ship an affected version, including golang.org/x/image.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
golang.org/x/image Go | All versions | 0.45.0 |
How do I fix CVE-2026-46603?
Upgrade golang.org/x/image to 0.45.0 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-2026-46603 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-46603 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as CLEANSTART-2026-MQ38153, CLEANSTART-2026-WP80268, CLEANSTART-2026-ZW99644, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-46603, GO-2026-6222, MINI-23vg-gm39-6fx6 and 33 more.