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misp-stix EUVDEUVD-2026-63881

| CVE-2026-77755 HIGH
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400)
2026-08-21 CIRCL GHSA-65gx-wjvj-88j8
8.7
CVSS 4.0 · Vendor: CIRCL
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Submit malformed or oversized STIX document to import API
  2. Delivery
    Importer reads full document into memory before validation
  3. Exploit
    Malformed path raises sys.exit() or large document exhausts memory
  4. Execution
    SystemExit bypasses all caller exception handlers
  5. Impact
    Importer process terminates unconditionally or host OOM-kills the service

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V2 - Validation and Business Logic Resource consumption limits
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires the ability to submit arbitrary STIX 1 or STIX 2 document content to a running misp-stix import workflow - typically via the MISP event import API, a STIX feed ingestion pipeline, or any integration that passes externally-sourced STIX files to the misp-stix library. For the sys.exit() termination condition, a malformed document that triggers any loading or parsing failure is sufficient; no specific file size is required. For the memory-exhaustion condition, a large STIX document is required, with effective memory cost at 2-7x raw input size depending on the parsing path (STIX 2 JSON is more expensive). Exploitation is limited by whether the STIX import endpoint is exposed to untrusted parties: MISP deployments that enforce API authentication before accepting imports, or that restrict STIX ingestion to internal or allowlisted sources, significantly reduce real-world risk. Both STIX 1 (XML) and STIX 2 (JSON) import paths are independently exploitable.

Impact

The CVSS 4.0 score of 8.7 (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VA:H/SA:L) reflects no authentication requirement and no special attack preconditions beyond network-reachable STIX import. The subsequent-system availability impact (SA:L) captures secondary service degradation beyond the importer process itself, such as batch ingestion pipelines stalling. There is no CISA KEV listing and no public POC identified at time of analysis, which tempers urgency; however, the attack primitives are trivially simple - crafting a malformed XML or JSON file or submitting a large file requires no exploit tooling. The PR:N rating in the provided CVSS 4.0 vector implies unauthenticated reachability of the STIX import path, but this depends on deployment: MISP instances that require API key authentication before accepting imports reduce the effective attack surface considerably. Real-world priority is moderate-to-high for organisations running automated or feed-driven STIX ingestion open to untrusted or semi-trusted sources; lower for deployments that gate imports behind authentication or restrict submission to internal systems.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker with network access to a MISP instance that accepts STIX document imports submits either a crafted malformed STIX XML or JSON file that triggers a parsing failure, causing sys.exit() to raise an uncaught SystemExit that terminates the importer process, or submits a multi-gigabyte STIX bundle that forces the deserialiser to allocate 2-7x the file size in memory, exhausting host memory and CPU and degrading or crashing the importing service. No public proof-of-concept code has been identified, but both attack primitives require no special tooling beyond the ability to send HTTP requests or inject STIX content into a feed.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
Patch available 0.5% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Aug 21, 2026

Denial-of-service in misp-stix allows remote attackers to terminate long-running MISP importer processes or exhaust host memory and CPU by submitting malformed or oversized STIX 1 or STIX 2 documents. Two distinct conditions combine: parsing failures invoked sys.exit(), which raises SystemExit - a BaseException subclass that bypasses standard except Exception handlers in callers - causing unconditional process termination instead of a recoverable error; and the library materialized full document content in memory before applying any size or validity checks, with processing costs of 2-7x the raw input size enabling resource exhaustion. No public exploit identified at time of analysis; upstream fix commits are available on GitHub.

RemediationAI

Apply the upstream fix commits e8e732ad and 66119552 available at https://github.com/MISP/misp-stix/commit/e8e732ad and https://github.com/MISP/misp-stix/commit/66119552. A specific patched release version was not confirmed from the available input data; operators should update misp-stix to the latest version that incorporates both commits, verifiable by checking for the presence of STIXInputSizeError in the installed package and the max_size parameter on stix_1_to_misp and stix_2_to_misp. As a compensating control before patching, restrict access to STIX import endpoints to authenticated or allowlisted sources using MISP API key enforcement or IP-level filtering; this reduces exposure for the PR:N unauthenticated path. Operators may also enforce upstream request-size limits at the web server or reverse-proxy layer (e.g., client_max_body_size in nginx or LimitRequestBody in Apache) to block oversized documents before they reach the parser - note that setting this too low may reject legitimate large STIX feeds. Disabling or isolating automated STIX feed ingestion from untrusted sources is advisable until the patch is applied.

Affected VersionsENISA

misp-stix 0 ≤2026.7.8

Affected Packages

euvd misp_stix no fix

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

misp-stix is the Python library used by the MISP threat intelligence platform to convert STIX 1.x (XML-based) and STIX 2.x (JSON-based) documents into MISP event objects. The root cause is CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) manifesting in two independent code paths. First, error-handling throughout the import pipeline used sys.exit() for failures such as unrecognised document types and loading errors; because sys.exit() raises SystemExit which inherits from BaseException rather than Exception, all except Exception blocks in callers silently fail to catch it, propagating the termination signal to the top-level process. Second, neither the stix_1_to_misp nor stix_2_to_misp code paths enforced an input size ceiling before parsing; for STIX 2 JSON bundles the Python object graph inflates to 2-7x the raw file size during deserialisation. The CPE cpe:2.3:a:misp:misp-stix:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* covers all versions with no patched upper bound confirmed in the provided data. The fixes replace sys.exit() with catchable STIXLoadingError, MissingSTIXContentError, and STIXInputSizeError exceptions and add a configurable max_size parameter (defaulting to 100 MB, 0 to disable) checked before the XML tree or JSON bundle is constructed.

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Severity by source

Vendor (CIRCL) PRIMARY 8.7 HIGH
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:L
vuln.today AI 7.5 HIGH

Network-reachable unauthenticated STIX import per provided CVSS 4.0 PR:N; no confidentiality or integrity impact, only high availability impact from process termination or resource exhaustion.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:L

Primary rating from Vendor (CIRCL).

CVSS VectorVendor: CIRCL

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
None
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Vulnerable system: Confidentiality
None
Vulnerable system: Integrity
None
Vulnerable system: Availability
High
Subsequent system: Confidentiality
None
Subsequent system: Integrity
None
Subsequent system: Availability
Low

DescriptionCVE.org

A denial-of-service vulnerability was identified in misp-stix when processing attacker-controlled STIX 1 or STIX 2 documents.

The STIX import code used sys.exit() to handle several parsing and loading failures. Because SystemExit inherits from BaseException rather than Exception, these failures bypassed the exception handlers used by callers of the library. As a result, a malformed STIX document could terminate a long-running importer process instead of returning a recoverable parsing error.

Additionally, no limit was imposed on the size of STIX documents before parsing. A submitted document was therefore read and materialised in memory before its validity or type was evaluated. Depending on the document and parsing path, processing could consume approximately two to seven times the input size in memory, allowing a sufficiently large STIX document to cause excessive memory and CPU consumption and potentially terminate or severely degrade the importing service.

An attacker able to provide STIX content to a MISP-STIX import workflow could exploit either condition to affect availability. A malformed document could cause abnormal process termination through an uncaught SystemExit, while a large document could exhaust resources during deserialisation and conversion.

The fixes replace process-terminating sys.exit() calls with catchable exceptions such as STIXLoadingError and MissingSTIXContentError, and extend exception handling around the complete STIX detection and conversion process. The importer also now enforces an input-size limit before parsing. The default maximum is 100 MB, can be adjusted by callers, and can explicitly be disabled when required. STIX 1 inputs are additionally checked for the expected root element before the complete XML tree is constructed.

ImpactSuccessful exploitation can cause:

  • termination of a long-running MISP-STIX importer;
  • excessive memory allocation;
  • excessive CPU consumption;
  • degradation or temporary unavailability of services relying on the converter;
  • interruption of batch or automated STIX ingestion workflows.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

A denial-of-service vulnerability in misp-stix (CVSS 8.7) could disrupt threat intelligence ingestion and delay incident response operations by causing importer process failures or server resource exhaustion. No public exploit identified at time of analysis. Organizations relying on MISP for threat data correlation face operational continuity risk until patching is completed.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.5%
Top 61% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
core library for MISP, widely deployed in CERT and ISAC communities
Social Media
1
Sightings
Data Quality
7 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment CIRCL GitHub VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.5%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
Yes
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

44
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +44
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

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