RUSTSEC-2026-0229 NIP-98 authorization parsing permits resource exhaustion

Not scored Published

Unauthenticated attackers can cause server memory and CPU exhaustion via oversized NIP-98 authorization headers in this Rust library.

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

What is RUSTSEC-2026-0229?

RUSTSEC-2026-0229 is a denial of service vulnerability in nostr, published on 1 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The NIP-98 HTTP authorization parser Base64-decoded the complete authorization value and parsed the resulting JSON event without applying an application-level size limit. Both operations occurred before the event's signature and authorization fields could be validated.

An unauthenticated remote client could send an oversized Authorization: Nostr header to a server using this parser. Each request caused memory allocation and decoding and JSON parsing work proportional to the supplied value, allowing repeated requests to consume server memory and CPU. The impact depends on any lower HTTP header limit already enforced by the hosting server. The issue does not bypass NIP-98 authentication or disclose protected data.

The parser now rejects oversized encoded input before Base64 allocation and rejects decoded authorization events larger than 64 KiB before JSON parsing.

Which versions are affected by RUSTSEC-2026-0229?

1 open source package ship an affected version, including nostr.

PackageAffectedFixed in
nostr crates.ioFrom 0.0.0-00.44.7

How do I fix RUSTSEC-2026-0229?

Upgrade nostr to 0.44.7 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 RUSTSEC-2026-0229 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of RUSTSEC-2026-0229 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Is RUSTSEC-2026-0229 in your software?

Upload an SBOM and sbomify checks it against every vulnerability here, every day.

Check your SBOMs for free