CVE-2026-115778: Twisted: Unauthenticated Remote Denial of Service in the Twisted conch Telnet Transport via an Unbounded Subnegotiation Buffer
An allocation-without-limits vulnerability (CWE-770) in the Twisted conch telnet transport lets any unauthenticated remote peer exhaust server memory over a single connection. When the peer opens a telnet subnegotiation with IAC SB and then streams bytes without ever sending the IAC SE terminator, every byte is appended to a per-connection buffer that has no maximum length. The buffer persists across reads and is released only on the terminator the attacker withholds, so it grows without bound until the process is killed.
References
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-cwm5-jh59-mwxr
- github.com/twisted/twisted/commit/073ba878c6c07d569cb61abc5ae76d46eff1b529
- github.com/twisted/twisted/commit/5d91cc66a3591faba758a80a1479e0103602facc
- github.com/twisted/twisted/pull/12750
- github.com/twisted/twisted/releases/tag/twisted-26.10.0rc1
- github.com/twisted/twisted/security/advisories/GHSA-cwm5-jh59-mwxr
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-115778
Code Behaviors & Features
Detect and mitigate CVE-2026-115778 with GitLab Dependency Scanning
Secure your software supply chain by verifying that all open source dependencies used in your projects contain no disclosed vulnerabilities. Dependency Scanning using SBOM also detects vulnerabilities from proprietary advisories that this site does not include. Learn more about Dependency Scanning using SBOM →