CVE-2026-63462: Unleash: Unauthenticated single-request DoS via OpenAPI validation error formatter
An unauthenticated POST to any OpenAPI-validated endpoint, including the anonymous POST /edge/validate and POST /edge/issue-token, crashes the entire Unleash server with one request body of deeply-nested JSON.
When request-body validation fails, Unleash builds the error message by calling JSON.stringify on the raw offending value taken from the request body. A value nested a few thousand levels deep makes JSON.stringify recurse past the V8 call-stack limit and throw RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded.
The throw is synchronous inside an Express error-handling middleware that has no try/catch, and the process registers no uncaughtException handler (only unhandledRejection). Node terminates the process with exit(1).
The body parser sets no JSON nesting-depth limit, the payload (about 10 KB at depth 5000) stays far under the 100 KB body-size limit, and the same error formatter serves every API route, so the trigger is route-independent.
Result: a remote attacker with no account, token, or cookie takes the whole server offline with a single 10 KB request, and keeps it offline by replaying it.
References
- github.com/Unleash/unleash/commit/b0e4da63249a9403bc209e0581db223326cb8dcf
- github.com/Unleash/unleash/commit/d45f99df924c0d24747b3e45e46fcda7dcd3c1c1
- github.com/Unleash/unleash/commit/d862562a5ab8f2d1e40f6519c64cf0b4fdaf806d
- github.com/Unleash/unleash/releases/tag/v7.5.2
- github.com/Unleash/unleash/releases/tag/v7.6.5
- github.com/Unleash/unleash/releases/tag/v8.0.2
- github.com/Unleash/unleash/security/advisories/GHSA-r5pq-6chh-j3xp
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-r5pq-6chh-j3xp
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-63462
Code Behaviors & Features
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