# CVE-2026-53781: Summarize < 0.17.0 Disk Exhaustion via Uncapped Media Download

> Remote attackers can exhaust host disk space by serving unbounded media responses to the Summarize CLI, bypassing size limits.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 11 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 8 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-q9xm-f36c-xm3q

## What is CVE-2026-53781?

CVE-2026-53781 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in steipete summarize, published on 11 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Summarize before 0.17.0 contains a resource exhaustion vulnerability that allows remote attackers to cause disk exhaustion by serving media responses that bypass the enforced size limit through missing or misreported Content-Length headers, chunked transfer encoding, or failed HEAD requests. Attackers who control a podcast feed or media URL can stream an unbounded response to local storage via the temp-file download path, exhausting disk or system resources on the host running the CLI.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53781?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including @steipete/summarize-core.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `@steipete/summarize-core` | npm | All versions | 0.17.0 |
| `@steipete/summarize-core` | npm | All versions | 0.17.0 |

## How do I fix CVE-2026-53781?

Upgrade @steipete/summarize-core to 0.17.0 or later.

## Is CVE-2026-53781 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53781 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-53781 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-53781 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in steipete summarize, published on 11 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53781 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- @steipete/summarize-core (npm): affected all versions; fixed in 0.17.0
- @steipete/summarize-core (npm): affected all versions; fixed in 0.17.0

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-2026-53781/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53781/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-53781
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53781
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-53781

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53781/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.