Plug.Parsers.MULTIPART, the multipart request-body parser used to handle file uploads and multipart forms, does not enforce its :length budget against all consumed resources, allowing an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause denial of service. The parser charges the :length limit only for part body bytes; part header bytes are never counted, and a part with an empty body costs zero.
Because every part whose Content-Disposition carries a non-empty filename creates a fresh temporary file (via Plug.Upload) and retains a Plug.Upload struct for the duration of the request, an attacker can send a single request composed of many empty-body file parts. Such a request stays well under the configured :length limit (8,000,000 bytes by default) while creating one temporary file per part, leading to inode and disk exhaustion and unbounded memory growth. Any application using Plug.Parsers with the :multipart parser is affected, and no authentication is required, only reachability of a multipart endpoint over HTTP.
This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/plug/parsers/multipart.ex and program routines Plug.Parsers.MULTIPART.parsemultipart/2, Plug.Parsers.MULTIPART.parsemultipartheaders/5, Plug.Parsers.MULTIPART.parsemultipartbody/4, and Plug.Parsers.MULTIPART.parsemultipart_file/4.
This issue affects plug: from 1.4.0 before 1.16.6, from 1.17.0 before 1.17.4, from 1.18.0 before 1.18.5, from 1.19.0 before 1.19.5, and from 1.20.0 before 1.20.3.
{
"cna_assigner": "EEF",
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-770"
],
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
"extracted_events": [
{
"introduced": "1.4.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.16.6"
},
{
"introduced": "1.17.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.17.4"
},
{
"introduced": "1.18.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.18.5"
},
{
"introduced": "1.19.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.19.5"
},
{
"introduced": "1.20.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.20.3"
},
{
"introduced": "c52b2f32c90bccd718202bafccb5f95594e30183"
},
{
"fixed": "*"
}
]
},
{
"source": "CPE_FIELD",
"extracted_events": [
{
"introduced": "1.4.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.16.6"
},
{
"introduced": "1.17.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.17.4"
},
{
"introduced": "1.18.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.18.5"
},
{
"introduced": "1.19.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.19.5"
},
{
"introduced": "1.20.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.20.3"
}
]
},
{
"source": "DESCRIPTION",
"extracted_events": [
{
"introduced": "1.4.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.16.6"
},
{
"introduced": "1.17.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.17.4"
},
{
"introduced": "1.18.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.18.5"
},
{
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},
{
"fixed": "1.19.5"
},
{
"introduced": "1.20.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.20.3"
}
]
}
],
"osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/56xxx/CVE-2026-56814.json"
}