GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg

Source

https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg

Import Source

https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/03/GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg/GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg.json

JSON Data

https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg

Aliases

Published

2026-03-11T00:16:48Z

Modified

2026-03-16T20:46:27.523939Z

Severity

8.7 (High) CVSS_V4 - CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVSS Calculator

Summary

Parse Server affected by denial-of-service via unbounded query complexity in REST and GraphQL API

Details

Impact

An unauthenticated attacker can exhaust Parse Server resources (CPU, memory, database connections) through crafted queries that exploit the lack of complexity limits in the REST and GraphQL APIs.

All Parse Server deployments using the REST or GraphQL API are affected.

Patches

The vulnerability is fixed by introducing configurable request complexity limits via the requestComplexity server option with the following keys:

subqueryDepth: Maximum nesting depth for $inQuery, $notInQuery, $select, $dontSelect
includeDepth: Maximum depth of dot-separated include paths
includeCount: Maximum number of include fields per query
graphQLDepth: Maximum depth of GraphQL field selections
graphQLFields: Maximum number of field selections in a GraphQL query

Requests using master key or maintenance key bypass these limits. Set any property to -1 to disable that specific limit.

In versions 8.6.15 and 9.5.2-alpha.2, these limits were enabled by default. This unintentionally introduced a breaking change for some applications with legitimate complex queries. In versions 8.6.46 and 9.6.0-alpha.22, the defaults were changed to -1 (disabled) to restore backwards compatibility.

The limits remain available as configuration options. To mitigate the vulnerability, upgrade to a patched version and set each requestComplexity property to a value appropriate for your application.

Workarounds

There is no known workaround.

References

GitHub security advisory: https://github.com/parse-community/parse-server/security/advisories/GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg
Fix Parse Server 9: https://github.com/parse-community/parse-server/releases/tag/9.5.2-alpha.2
Fix Parse Server 8: https://github.com/parse-community/parse-server/releases/tag/8.6.15

Database specific

{
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-03-11T00:16:48Z",
    "cwe_ids": [
        "CWE-770"
    ],
    "severity": "HIGH",
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-03-10T21:16:47Z"
}

References

Affected packages

npm / parse-server

Package

Name: parse-server; View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl: pkg:npm/parse-server

Affected ranges

Type: SEMVER
Events: Introduced

0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected

Fixed

8.6.15

Database specific

source

"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/03/GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg/GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg.json"

npm / parse-server

Package

Name: parse-server; View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl: pkg:npm/parse-server

Affected ranges

Type: SEMVER
Events: Introduced

9.0.0

Fixed

9.5.2-alpha.2

Database specific

source

"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/03/GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg/GHSA-cmj3-wx7h-ffvg.json"